{we made it}

Wow. It has been a whole year since Caroline was born. This is nuts. Why does time go by at supersonic speeds once you have a baby?! I don't think I ever told Caroline's birth story, so I am going to re-live it one more time. I am sure you are stoked.

I scheduled Caroline's induction on my due date, April 12th. We went in about 8:00am, and I got hooked up to the IV immediately. Then, Dr. Sherman came in and broke my water about 8:30. I was only at 2cm and she said I needed to "just progress" before I could get my epidural. They jacked up the pictocin and off she went. She said she would come back and check on me around lunch. (Lunch?? Is this going to take that long??) Little did I know...

She actually came back around 10ish and checked me, and of course I hadn't budged. I was a bit disappointed, and started to try and mentally prepare myself for what I thought was all women in my family's destiny: a C-section. I know they aren't that big of a deal, but I just didn't want one. Then she said she would come back at lunch, but the nurse could give me some pain meds if the contractions started getting bad.

Boy, did they ever! I rang for the nurse about an hour later saying I was in pretty bad pain. She checked me. No progress. Ugh. She tried to give me a pep talk and push off the meds. I said ok.

About an hour later, I rang for the nurse again. She didn't check me, but she did allow me to have whatever meds they give you before the epidural. It basically just took the edge off. I was still in a lot of pain, but was able to relax a little bit.

The contractions continued to get worse and worse. Dr. Sherman showed up around 1:30, as I am wanting to pull my hair out, and says- oh! You are at about 4.5cm. Good! You can get your epidural now.

So, of course, the anesthesiologist was in surgery for another 2 hours! I progressed to 7cm before he came in. The contractions were beyond unbearable at this point. As Zach is holding my hand, and I am sobbing in pain, I lean over for the doctor to give me the epidural. I ended up squeezing Zach's hands so hard that he had to stop and sit down because he was about to pass out. Oops! I hadn't realized that since I had been in so much pain over the past 4 hours, he hadn't stopped to get lunch. Now, that's true love!

I got the epidural around 3:30, and was able to (literally) instantly relax. I felt like a different person. I was able to get to sleep for about an hour. The nurse came in about 5pm to check me and I was at 9cm. They paged the doctor, and by the time she got there at 6pm, I was ready to push.

I pushed for TWO.LONG.HOURS. Yes. I felt like I was at a gym working out with a trainer, and not stopping the workout for 2 hours. It was seriously the total body workout of my life. In between, Dr. Sherman, the nurse, Zach and I were chatting like we were old friends at dinner. It was awesome. I loved my doctor, and I had really awesome nurses! I had to stop several times between contractions and turn because Caroline's heart rate was dropping. Here we go again, I thought. C-section. But, no. I made it!

At 7:54pm, the most beautiful baby girl was born. The cord was wrapped around her neck twice (which I hear is actually quite common and not a huge deal if you get them out fairly quickly). She screamed to high heaven, and I fell in love instantly, and have never been the same since. She is such a blessing in our lives and I couldn't imagine life without her!