done waiting...finally

Well, I guess I was wrong about Kate being early. But that's because we are done waiting for her to make her arrival, as everyone already knows. I am sitting at home on the couch, a soon to be rare moment that nothing is happening. Aidan and Kate are both napping, we have already eaten lunch, there is laundry washing, and Adam is playing racquetball with Chris. I am tired, Adam let me get a nap in this morning though, it was a nice couple of hours. So I am not too sure where to start, I am going to write about my experiences these past few days, I guess I'll just start at the beginning...yeah...So I went to the Dr. on Tuesday morning and I was the same as I had been for the last 3 weeks. Adam and I had talked about when we wanted to be induced by if nothing was happening. I asked the Dr. if we could go in Thursday night and she said she would have to check the scheduling of the other Dr. on call. She said that it might be hard to get in and made it sound like we wouldn't be able to do anything until next week. I told her I would take what I could get and they were going to call me later in the afternoon with a time for me to go in. They called a few hours later and told me the wanted me to go in the next morning at 6. I wasn't expecting that. So we tried to get some stuff done on Tuesday night and called the next morning and were left waiting for a bed. There was finally one open a couple of hours later. The next thing I knew we were in the room waiting again (it was busy for a while there). They started the IV with petocin and bring on the contractions. So last time I had he epidural right when they started the petocin , this time I waited a few hours before I got it. The contractions weren't quite what I expected them to be. I wasn't sure since I didn't feel much of anything last time. There was a lot of pressure during the contractions but it was decently bearable. I got the epidural again, this time was so much better than last time. I think that last time the Dr. gave me too much medication. I pretty much couldn't feel anything at all. This time was much better I think. I could still feel the contractions but not the pain from them, I could still feel the pressure of Kate pushing down and I could actually move my legs. I dilated fast, I was fully ready to go about 3:30 I think (they started the IV at 10:30). I felt like I needed to push, I pushed for 10 min or so and they wanted me to wait for her to come down some more on her own so I would stretch out some more and have less of a chance of tearing again (apparently my tear last time was really bad and they were concerned about it). So I had to wait for an hour and sit with my legs crossed in front of me; so much for gravity and the epidural. I had a really good nurse, she was talkative and informative; I liked her a lot. Finally it was time to push, the Dr. checked me out and found that Kate was facing her side instead of the back, I pushed once and she turned right around. It took 3 good contractions (3 pushes per contraction) for her to crown. Then the Dr. told me to stop pushing, I said I wasn't. Kate came out anyway: apparently she didn't want to be in there anymore. I didn't push any more and out she came. She was crying before she was even all the way out. It was more emotional for me this time; I almost cried. I think that this time around I will cherish things more because I know they will be gone quickly. She really is quite beautiful, I was glad to have the time in the hospital with her to get to know her a bit better. I decided to stay an extra night so I wouldn't have to deal with both kids so soon. It was nice, Kate and I just napped and relaxed yesterday morning at the hospital while Adam was at school. I really enjoyed my experience again, it was so much different than last time but just as special. More to come later, time for Kate to eat.