What a difference a day makes....

My final prenatal dr. visit was Wednesday afternoon. The doctor mentioned that he would be at the hospital on Saturday if we wanted to come and have the baby. He sent us to a staff member to schedule an induction. The more I thought about it the less interested I became. There was nothing wrong with me, the baby wasn't in danger, so why did we need to go and induce labor. I had an appointment scheduled to fill out paperwork, but we held out on scheduling the induction. The nurse was going to call me Thursday to see what we had decided to do. I had decided not to go through with the induction and was going to let her know when she phoned.

About 7:15 p.m., mom and I sat down to eat some dinner. She had been over because we had our baseboards removed and redone (Ike damage...no rush there, Stephen). The workers finished Wednesday afternoon and mom and I were putting the food back in the pantry. Stephen had gone to play softball. I was having contractions when he left, but they weren't consistent or too intense. He had called to check on me when he arrived at the field and mom told him everything was o.k.

Mom started to touch up my nails about 7:45 p.m. The paint was chipping and I didn't want to have a bad manicure if I had the baby this weekend. At 7:50 p.m. my water broke. I called Stephen immediately and all I heard was, " Guys, gotta go...Steph's water just broke." I laughed uncontrollably as I sat in the chair at my kitchen table. My mom brought me a towel and I stripped down right then and there. I knew I had an hour or so to be at the hospital so I went upstairs to take a shower. Stephen arrived about 30 minutes later. He showered as well. Mom was on the computer trying to log in for my substitute. We couldn't find my pin number. (I have never called in sick to work before.) My mom ended up calling my department head and she took care of everything for me.

We hopped in the car about 8:45 p.m. and raced to the hospital. When we arrived the lobby was filled with our family members. Everyone had rushed over when they heard the news and they beat us there. We headed up to L and D and checked in with the nurses. They put us in the room and began the questioning/paperwork process. They asked me when I wanted my epi and I told them I was o.k. for now. Then the contractions really hit. They were painful and coming every two minutes. I decided to hold out for a while and they suggested a drug to relax me. It was awful. Never take Stadol. It made me feel drunk, but the contractions were still painful. I wanted to wait for the drug to wear off before I got my epi.

About 1:30 a.m. the anesthesiologist came in with the monster needle. I definitely didn't look at it. I was good to go by 2:00 a.m. and slept from 2:00 a.m. to about 5:00 a.m. I was only 4 cm when they came to check me at 5:00 a.m. The doctor decided to kick in the pitocin. All of the sudden, I was at 6 cm and then was at 9 cm when my doctor checked in around 6:30 a.m. The on call dr was set to deliver, but the dr is a personal friend of Stephen's friend Shaun. Shaun texted our dr when we were on the way to the hospital and he called us and told us he would come in and deliver.

At about 6:50, I was feeling alot of pressure. The nurses had told me to let them know if I was feeling pressure, so I did. They lifted the blanket and one said," Call her doctor, let's prep her this baby is coming." Stephen had stepped out of the room. I was afraid he was going to miss it all.

The doctor rushed in at 6:55. I pushed through 3 contractions and then Cole was here. Cole had been so hanging out so low the whole pregnancy, but in the end it made it so much easier.

Cole Thomas Bailey was born on November 12, 2009. He weighed 6 lbs. 11 ozs. and was 19.5 in. long. What a happy day.