We went to the hospital to be admitted Sunday evening, which was pretty uneventful and they started pitocin at 6:00 on Monday morning. At 8:00 they broke my water and although I was almost completely effaced, it took FOREVER to dialate. At first the contractions were really mild, in fact, when they put the monitor on Sunday she said I was having contractions, I felt really stupid because I thought it was Chase curling up. She said it was normal to think that (made me feel better). Anyway, after about 2 hours all the contractions were in my lower back and it was pure torture. My dr. didn't want to give me a epi until I was a 3, but finally gave it to me at a 2 1/2 because all I could do was hold Jeff's hand and cry. At first the epi worked great, but my legs were really numb - I couldn't even move my left one. I spent the entire day just trying to dilate!! My dr. left at 7 because he had two kids at home and no sitter, so much for my OB delivering! At about 8 all my contractions were at the top of my uterus, right where my epi didn't hit, torture again, man it hurt. They offered to up the epi but it wasn’t hitting that high and I didn't want my legs to be any number because at that point I could barely lift the right one. I developed a fever, which they think was from the long labor, so they called the on-call Dr. and she had them start antibiotics. About 9 I got to start pushing and pushed for about an hour before I had to stop while we waited on the Dr. to get there. The not pushing was so hard because by that time my body was ready to nothing but push. When the Dr. arrived, almost an hour later, she introduced herself and was visiting with the nurses when my mom informs them there is a contraction coming. They said he had moved back up some so to push and they would get dressed and put gloves on. It must have been one good push because that was all it took to get his head out!! Poor Jeff starts saying head and they said, yes, keep pushing, thinking I'm crowning. I had no idea what to do! All I knew was I wanted him out and there was no one there to catch him. Jeff starts explaining and the Dr. had enough time to get gloves on and catch him. After almost 17 hours, I was SOOOO happy to have him out. We were surprised since we were expecting an 8 pounder and got a 6 pounder, but he is absolutely perfect!!! He had a fever too, but it went down, so they were happy. I had a 2nd degree tear so that was crummy, but it could have been worse!

We thought we were going to get to come home Wed. but his bilirubin was up, so his pedi transferred him to pediatrics late Wed. night. I was already discharged, but they put him in his own room so that we could stay with him. I was NOT leaving without him. I didn't think it would be bad, but at 11 on Wed they came in and said he had to be under the bili lights and they put him in an incubator. The good thing was it was in our room, the bad thing was I couldn't take him out and hold him. I could only reach through the holes and touch him. It was an even worse pain than labor to not be able to hold him and I cried and cried. It broke my heart. Finally at noon on Thursday they started letting us take him out for 20 min every 3-4 hours, so that helped a lot. At least then I could cuddle and kiss him and hold him. We had been told we were going to have to stay a couple of more days, so we figured maybe we would get to come home Sunday, but he did so well that they released us at 1:15 Friday morning. I know that's a really weird time, but they were really busy and asked if we still wanted to go even though it was the middle of the night and we were all for it!

It was definitely a week full of ups and downs. We realized Wednesday morning that no one ever talked to us about the birth certificate, so we kept asking about it and they never got to us. We were told someone would call, so I'm not impressed with that part. All in all, the nurses were really nice (except one, but she was just filling in for a couple of hours). It was definitely hard in that everyone wants to tell you something different and has their own way of doing things.

I feel like we are living a dream and when I look at him, I just can’t believe that he is ours. Jeff is an excellent daddy and so gentle with Chase, I am even more in love with him now, than I was before, which I never thought would be possible.