The Suisse Family Robinson

Today Lara turned 2 and since I was up at 1:20 in the morning feeding Vivi I was also able to think about 2 years ago when Lara was born. As I had never gone through pregnancy or labor and delivery before I made the mistake of being very certain how I wanted things to be. My due date was February 14th but I didn't want her on Valentine's day, either a day before or some time after, I didn't want to be induced, and I wanted a natural birth.

Pregnant women, take note: Be prepared to be surprised.

Near the end of January my doctor kept telling me that the baby (we didn't know if the baby was a boy or a girl) would come any day since I was dilating quite nicely. My due date came and went with no baby. So on February 21st I went to Riverside Hospital for a 9:00 induction appointment.

Here's how the day went-
9:00am Arrived at Riverside Hospital. Sat around in the labor and delivery room for 2 hours playing games while the staff waited for the actual order to start the pitocin. Keep in mind that I wasn't supposed to have eaten anything since the night before.
11:00 Finally got hooked up to the pitocin, so I thought that things would go pretty quickly after that. Nope. My mom and my sister, Suki, came to wait with me and play games. I know now that I was having very small contractions but at the time I didn't think I was because they didn't hurt.
3:30 I wasn't progressing at all so they broke my water. Then the contractions started to hurt. I was able to breathe through most of them and I was progressing finally- 4 cm, then 5, etc.
6:00 I was very tired and I could not sleep through the contractions. I still wanted to try having a natural birth so the nurse suggested Nubain, which only lasts for an hour, so that I could rest for a bit.
7:00 Nubain wore off so it was back to work.
9:00 At this point I was very exhausted and very hungry. I had progressed steadily up until now and then I got stuck at 7 cm. I got very discouraged when the nurse told me that I hadn't changed from the last check. Plus Lara had turned a little so I had back labor. Let me tell ya', that stuff hurts. So I just said "Give me the drugs!" I was already disappointed that things hadn't gone as I had wanted so what's one more change to my birth plan?
9:30 Epidural = sleep. Yay! The nurse stuck me in weird positions to help Lara turn her body.
12:30 Almost time to push. The nurse called the doctor and then prepped the room for delivery.
1:00 I've decided that pushing is my favorite part of delivery because you know there's going to be a baby soon. Also, since Reed and I like to be surprised it's fun to know that you'll soon discover whether the baby is a boy or a girl.
1:20am 20 minutes of pushing and Lara was born! I had wanted a girl first and I had called Lara a "she" through most of my pregnancy so I was pretty happy. :)

So Happy Birthday, Lara! Even though your labor and delivery wasn't my favorite (Vivi's was so much easier) I was glad to have you join our family. Looking forward to the next year!