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David Edward's Birth

I found out I was pregnant at 13 weeks when I went to the doctor to see about getting fertility drugs. We had been trying for over a year with no luck. I guess we were being just a little impatient.

My pregnancy went by very smoothly. I had no problems besides the usual heartburn and a little bit of swollen feet at the end. I loved being pregnant! Feeling my baby kick was the best feeling in the world!

One week before my due date I woke up and had a very light cramping pain at about 10 am. When I went to the bathroom I noticed blood so I decided to call the Doctor. He said to not worry it was normal and I was most likely just dilating but I could go to the hospital and get checked if I wanted. Since I was home alone I decided to just wait and see what happened.

I kept having pains off and on. I figured if I was in labor I should eat now because if I waited to long I might get sick during delivery. So, I had a nice greasy hamburger and fries from McDonald's. This is probably not the best food to eat while you are in labor. :)

I started timing my pains. They were not very painful but they were coming at regular intervals. At 3 p.m., when my husband came home from working overtime, I was still having pain about 5 - 6 minutes apart. I felt like it was false labor though so we decided to go to the mall so my husband could pick up a gift he had bought me for after the delivery (who is going to say no to that?).

So off to the mall we go! Daren went to pick up my gift while I looked around at Spencer's Gifts. While I was waiting, the pains started getting worse. I had to stop what I was doing when I had a contraction. Finally, Daren came back and we talked about if we should go to the hospital or just go home. We still didn't believe I was really in labor.

We decided that we would go to the hospital just to get checked and see if anything is happening. On the way we stopped at Taco Bell cause Daren had not eaten all day and I had to go to the bathroom.

As we were making the last stretch of road to the hospital I felt a pop and my water broke. I was starting to think I may really be in labor!

We finally got to the hospital. It was about 6:30 p.m. We went to the second floor and I had a really hard contraction and I had to stop right before reaching the nurses' station and just hold on to Daren. A couple of nurses came up to us and ask if we are OK. I said No! :)

They took us into a room and told me to get undressed and get into bed so they can check and see if I am in labor. They checked me and said that I was dilated to an 8! I asked for my epidural but the nurse just said, "We'll see." Yikes!!!!!!

They hooked me up to my IV and anesthesiologist finally gots there and told me to lay on my side and be still (yeah right). On his first attempt to give me my epidural I felt a shock like my leg was electrocuted so I jumped. Little did I know how painful that jump would become!

On his second attempt he got it in with no problem. They said the pain should gradually get better then completely go away. Sure enough it did! You gotta love those epidurals!

They said I was pretty much at a 10 but they wanted to wait about 20 minutes to make sure the epidural was flowing well. Once we started pushing, it took 2 hours and 2 attempts with the mighty vac and a little bit of Pitocin before he was born.

David Edward was born at 10:04 p.m. on February 1, 1998. He was the most beautiful baby I had ever seen. As soon as they cut the cord they gave him to me and I couldn't believe he was finally here!