Laura Sicilia has Arrived!!!

For some reason I was super tired on Saturday. I slept well Friday night, but ended up taking two long naps during the day, which turned out to be a good thing. Around 9:30pm, I started having contractions that felt a little different than the ones I had been having for the past 6 months. These were a little bit sharper, but much shorter. They were 2-3 mins apart, but only lasted about 30 seconds. They didn't feel very intense, so Rob and I settled down and watched a couple of shows. Around 11pm, Rob decided to try to get some sleep (he hadn't gotten any naps as he wanted me to get them and with five kids, we don't usually both get to take naps at the same time). Around 1am, the contractions started to hurt more, so I woke Rob up and called Betsy. Betsy woke up Ashley and Rob drove over to pick her up (she only lives one street away, but it was the middle of the night, so we didn't want to make her walk over on her own). We headed to the hospital at about 1:30am and got their just before 2am.

We snapped one last shot of my belly before we headed off. We made it to full term; I was at 37 weeks and 1 day!

I was at 2 cms, so definitely just at the beginning, although the nurse said she thought once things got going that they would move pretty quickly. Since I was handling the contractions really well, the nurse suggested we walk for a bit to get things going. Rob and I walked the halls of the L&D ward for 30 mins. The contractions got farther apart, but were more intense and lasting longer. After getting settled again, my OB came in and checked me and I was completely effaced and dilated to 4 cms. He agreed with the nurse that things would probably move quickly and we guessed she'd show up in about 3 hours, around 6am (I had been at the hospital for an hour at this point). He broke my water and the contractions started to get really painful.

Usually I am really calm during labor. I have a very high tolerance for pain and I don't like making noise. I've gotten epidurals with the last three babies and really like that they allow me to stay calm and focus on the experience, plus I can remember it and enjoy it. I was glad I requested one during Laura's delivery as the contractions got worse and worse. We had to wait for the anesthesiologist to get there, so it was about another hour. By the time she got there, the pain was so bad that I was shaking uncontrollably. I managed to stay still long enough for her to get the epidural in. She gave me a shot of painkillers with it to give more immediate relief.

Usually epidurals take about 15-20 mins to kick in for me and usually they start on one side and spread to the other. This one was the same and numbed my right side first. About that time, my OB came in to check me again. He told me I was incredible and was already at 7cms! As he sat there on the side of my bed saying something to the nurse, I had another contraction and felt really intense pressure and pain, I told him it felt like I needed to push. He checked again and I had gone from 7cms to complete in literally 30 seconds! Laura wasn't waiting for anyone!

Everyone ran around trying to get things ready. I heard my nurse ask if we should wait for the epidural to kick in (it still was only sort of working on my right side and not at all on my left). The dr said Laura wasn't going to give us the chance to wait. Rob was on my left side and needed to move to my right side, but I was holding his hand too tightly for him to move. He managed to switch sides just in time. It was the worst pain I have ever felt in my life, but less than a minute later, Laura made her appearance! Seven centimeters to delivery in 90 seconds!

From the time we got to the hospital, it was about 2.5 hours until she showed up. She was born at 4:35am, beating everyone's predictions by an hour and a half. She weighed 7 lbs 6 oz, tying with Jack as our second largest baby (only Megan was bigger at 8 lbs 4 oz), and was 19 3/4 inches long. And by the way, she missed the cut off for getting into school the year behind Eva by four and a half hours. Betsy (who will be watching the younger kids while I do my internships) says Laura just wants to spend an extra year with her :)