THE BIG DAY!

Filling out paperwork

Watching the monitor

Updating the blog for y'all (Texas shout-out)


9:30 am -- Dr. Seale came in to break the water (No Picture of this one) ;)

Dr. Fred "Rocky" Seale


10:02 am -- The nurse asked Tiffany how she would rate her pain. ("5 stars. Two enthusiastic thumbs up.") She answered that on a scale of 1 to 10, she would rate her pain a 3. (A 4 is where they decided they would give the epidural.)

10:17 am -- After the last contraction and noticing that Tiff was really sweating, I asked if she was ready for her epidural, and she squeaked out a "Yes"

10:22 am -- Anesthesiologist arrived after the longest 5 minutes in history to start the epidural.

10:35 am -- Epidural finished. Tiff happy.

10:45 am -- Dilated to a 2.5 and "almost completely thinned out"

Post-Epidural (and calling Melanie)


11:16 am -- Quote from temporary nurse: "I'm going to back off the pitocin a little bit because you're pounding out contractions every 30 seconds with almost no rest in between them."

11:40 am -- Dilated to a 4. Nurse backed off the pitocin again. Quote: "I think your body has figured out what we're trying to do here and doesn't need any help from us. We don't need to rocket the baby out."

11:49 am -- I think about Taco Bell just across the street as I eat a graham cracker, a fruit rollup, and a granola bar.

12:39 pm -- Dilated to an 8!!! (Nurse backed off the pitocin again.)

1:18 pm -- I wish Joel was here to pop my back... It kills!... er... But not nearly as bad as labor must! (I probably shouldn't be whining about any pain right now.)

1:38 pm -- Fully dilated! The nurse said the head needs to come down a little more, so it may be another hour of resting... or we may start pushing now. Waiting to hear back from the doc.

1:50 pm -- Starting to push.

2:45 pm -- "Resting and descending" for 15 minutes.

3:51 pm -- Been pushing for almost another hour. I'm not sure how Tiff is doing it -- We both only got a few hours sleep last night, and I am totally wasted already. The nurse said the baby is at a Stage 3 (which was a new term I'd never heard, but that has something to do with the position on the head in the birth canal.) The nurse just went to call the doctor to see what he wanted to do.