9:47pm Monday Night

I had planned on natural childbirth. That being said, I told myself from the get go that I would do whatever I felt was necessary when the time came, and I wouldn't beat myself up for it. I would say I stuck to this rather well, aside from the induction. For some reason the induction is the part of unnatural childbirth I was/am the most bummed about. Funnily enough, the one part that couldn't be avoided.

Once my mom, Dave, and I were checked into the labor/delivery room my contractions were pretty consistent. It took Dave about 10 minutes to fall asleep in the rocking chair in the room. My mom stayed up with me while I went through contractions for the next 3 hours or so. We walked up and down the U-shaped hallway of our floor, chit-chatted, and I stopped every so often to work through contractions. By the time we returned to our room I was in pretty major pain, and thought for sure I must have progressed. I was checked again, and I had only dilated maybe another centimeter. If it took this long, and this much pain to get 1 whole centimeter then I had a feeling it was going to be a REALLY long labor.

My Doctor offered me an IV drug to help with pain. I was studied up enough on this to know that this is only temporary pain relief, it doesn't work for everyone, and it also drugs the baby. I decided to skip this step and go for the epidural. So much for natural childbirth.

Getting an epidural is a crazy experience. First of all, they made Dave and my mom leave the room. I had one nurse holding my hand, and an anesthesiologist poking around my spine to find the proper home for the epidural. They numb you 2 times with injections, and then administer the epidural. Now, before I was ever even pregnant I thought this would be a horrible, terrifying experience. Nope - I barely felt a thing! It was really quite interesting, and it worked quickly. It was probably around 5:00am when I was given the epidural, and I fell asleep for a long time after it was administered. This also meant that my mom and Dave got to sleep as well.

By the time I woke up it was time for shift changes in both nurses and Doctors. My normal Doctor happened to be rounding (a 1 in 10 chance that I would get her!), and Michelle, a wonderful nurse, took over. And then my water broke. This was rather odd because I was quite numb from the epidural, so it was hard to really assess what was happening. I was checked again, and still had made little progress dilating. I think this was roughly around the time they decided it might be best for me to take Pitocin. Again, feel free to google this if you want to know what it does.

My sister-in-law, Jamie, warned me that Pitocin could be quite overwhelming to the system. It forces you to dilate, and can make contractions rather intense. Thanks to my wonderful epidural, I was spared many of the unpleasant side effects. I "labored" (I wasn't really doing a lot of work, but my body was) for the whole day, and the pitocin really helped things progress. Meanwhile, I slept off and on, and drank some apple juice and water (which I later threw up).

Around 8:00pm at night my Doctor checked me; I was fully dilated and she told me that I could start pushing within an hour. It was also around this time that I noticed that my epidural seemed to stop working. After talking to a few nurses, Doctors, and an anesthesiologist it was determined that my epidural had probably been shifted out of place and that I would need to have it replaced. Everyone delivered this news like they told me I was dying. I assured them all that I wasn't worried, and let's get this show on the road.

Right after my epidural was replaced my Doctor told me it was time. A flood of nurses entered the room, and started setting everything up for me and Baby Wall. I was really overwhelmed when they told me they wanted me to start pushing. I was really numb from a spinal injection I was given (I could barely move my legs), I had labor shakes (I didn't know these existed until I was in labor), and I was just a little freaked out. I asked everyone to give me 5 minutes to collect myself. This was one of the best decisions I made in that 24 hours. I asked Dave and my mom to not talk to me, to just let me be alone with my thoughts for a few minutes. I collected myself, and the Doctors and nurses re-entered the room.

When you hear horror stories about women pushing for 2 or 3 hours, it sounds really awful. While I was on pain medication, I assure you it was not that bad. The worst part of all is waiting for a contraction! I pushed for close to an hour, with a room full of 10 women cheering me on. My mom was right next to me, and Dave was up by my head. Everyone was so wonderful and reassuring, telling me how great I was doing.

And then . . .

I heard Dave say, "It's a boy"!

Into this world came Elliott David Wall.

He was born at 9:47pm on Monday, May 2. He weighed 7 lbs, 6.5 ounces, and was 19 inches.

He is perfect.

I created a human. It is completely surreal, and amazing.