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Birth Story
Based on discussions between my doctors, dh and I, a decision was made to induce dd at 39 weeks and 1 day, 1/12/12. I was already 3cm and 70% effaced.
Thursday morning I woke up early (couldn't sleep anymore) to shower, shave, do my hair and makeup, etc. heh. Dh and I got to the hospital at the scheduled time of 6:30am, leaving James at home with my parents who are visiting from cali.
At 7:30am my dr (same one that delivered James 
) came in to check me, broke my water and had the nurse get pitocin started around 8am. They up'ed my pitocin gradually (every half hour) and my parents got to the hospital after dropping James off at dc.
My dr had told me to ask for the epidural as soon or as late as I wanted it and I had dh tell my nurse I wanted it around 10am...I had gotten tired of him telling me 'you're having a HUGE contraction' from watching the 1-2 second delayed monitor. 
When they sat me up in bed to get it, the f'in st. john's river came out of me...that should have been the first clue that this was going to be a fast labor. By 10:45am my parents were joking around and talking about soccer with the spanish/puerto rican anesthesiologst, and I was relaxing.
At noon my nurse checked me again and I was at 5. At that point we all took bets with her about when I'd be pushing...5:30 -6:30pm seemed to be the window. I took a nap and the nurse came back in around 1:15pm to check me again. She said we were all wrong as I was at 10 and she could pretty much feel the baby's head. We had my parents move to the area behind the curtain with a couple of chairs and did a couple of "practice pushes". She stopped me after the second one and said, 'you're having this baby now' and called for everyone, telling me not to push anymore. Went through a couple of pushes with the dr but he told me to stop pushing too as ds was coming out with the contractions themselves. Natalie was offiially born at 1:41pm, 8lbs, 20.5 inches; and my parents heard her first cries through the curtain.
I thought I had a great birth experience with James but this was even better.
Re: Birth Story
So glad things went so smoothly! We were commenting at book club yesterday how amazing you look in your FB picture!
Also, I totally LOLed at YH letting you know you were having a contraction, especially given the delay! haha
My Ovulation Chart
I'm sure this wasn't funny at the time but I seriously cracked up reading it. It sounds like you had a wonderful experience. Sounds like it doesn't get much better than that.
As for your FB pic, I showed it to DH and told him that he is not allowed to post any post-labor pictures of me on FB (when the time comes) unless I look that good.
Thanks, everyone.
It's definitely easier to screen those first post-partum pics when you have time to prepare beforehand and when minimal work is needed before and during heh.
Lucky girl! What an awesome birth.
After 40 hours of labor and no sleep for almost 60 there are very few pictures of me after I delivered. None posted on FB.
Awww, I LOVE Natalie (it was in our top 5)! Congrats, mama! I'm so happy for you guys! How's the big brother taking it all?
How is it that my BABY is going to be 3?
BFP-2/25/11; 8 Wk U/S-3/25/11-No HB, measured 6.5 wks; D&C
Ds's reaction was one of my biggest worries since he's so used to having all of our attention to himself and he's too young to really get that she was going to be an outside baby with us foever.
But from the moment he saw her at the hospital he seemed to get that she's 'ours', hugging and kissing the baby cart she was lying in. The first thing he says in the mornings is 'where's baby sister'. And when he sees i'm feeding her , he'll ask for attention fom dh or my parents instead of fom me. I'm sure we'll have to deal with jealousy at some point but he's been great so far.
Oh, stop being so modest. I am sure you're just one of those women I'm going to curse whenever we have one & I look like I've been hit by a Mac truck...or gone through an exorcism. Lol You looked beautiful & so very happy. Glad you had such a wonderful experience. Love the name. She's adorable.
That's pretty much what I looked like, nothing like Madisen's gorgeous post-birth picture!!
Congratulations, mama! I'm so happy for you guys and SO glad to hear that your little guy is adjusting well!
What an awesome story! Im so glad things went well and so happy your parents could be there! Thats great!
And ditto everone's comments about the FB pic! I had a serious awwwwww moment.