We found "Nemo"

Most of you have probably heard by now, that "Nemo" - who is now officially known as Brody Alan - found his way in to the world on October 13 at 8:44 am. Here is his birth story:

Oct 12 - All day I just didn't feel good. I didn't have pains until later in th evening, but I just felt awful. Like it took everything I had to get up out of the chair and make lunch.

7:30-ish that night - I got the first of what I thought could be a "pain". I told Walt and we started to watch the clock. By 11:30 they were about 20 minutes apart. We had no idea how fast they'd get closer together, so we decided to call my parents to come over and get Noah.

1:30am (Oct 13) - By this point, I was SURE it was labor and the pains were coming about 5 minutes apart, so we called the doctor and she told me to come on in.

2:30 am - We arrived at Magee...and what a difference driving in the middle of the night makes. I think we made it there in 18 minutes.

3:45 am - I waited in Triage for over an hour for a doctor to check me. When she did, she informed me I was at 6cm and they were going to move me to a Labor & Delivery suite. The nurse was surprised, the monitor wasn't showing my contractions were that strong and they didn't even think I was in labor. Guess that's why I waited over an hour. On the way out, the doctor asked if I wanted an epidural. I said "yes please" and I started to cry to Walt. I told him that since I was already at 6cm and it takes HOURS to get an epidural (I didn't know this! I just wanted it then!) I would surely die.

4:30am - I arrived in the L&D room and we waited. And waited, and waited....all the while the pain got worse and worse.

6:30am - Finally sweet relief! I guess there was an emergency in surgery and all of the other patients got backed up. But, finally I had my epidural and I got that warm, fuzzy feeling instead of all of that pain. The doctor came to check me shortly after I received my epidural and I was at 8cm! I have brought up the fact that I was only 2 cm away from a completely natural delivery to Walt about 10,000 times in the past 2 weeks. ;)

7:30am - They told me it was time to push! I couldn't believe it was happening this fast. It seemed like it took forever with Noah.

8:44am - After a little more than an hour of pushing, and me crying to them that I couldn't do it...I DID do it - and Brody was born. He weighed in at 7lbs, 80z and is completely and totally perfect.

I will add here, that I feel like I was cheated out of my epidural goodness. I only had it for 2 hours - and I would have taken it a week before he was born! Walt gave me a lovely gift in the delivery room, a necklace with Noah's, Brody's and my birthstones. I told him it isn't a "push present", it's an "8cm present". :)