Hi ladies!!
Finally have a minute to do a quick update for you all. We are all at home and doing great. We came home yesterday afternoon. I have never been so ready to be back at my own house. The hospital was great and everyone we came into contact with there was beyond fantastic but I was still ready to get out of there.
Well, as you know, labor took a little while! But it was so worth it in the end and I felt like everything was handled very well.
We went in on Friday morning at 7:00 and I was still only at 1 cm and 70% effaced. The first dose of Cytotec was given just after 8:00 to try and ripen my cervix a little more and kick me into natural labor. They checked me again at 10:00 am and no change so another dose was given. The plan was to see how the second dose did and then start pitocin in the afternoon if things were moving along properly. I finally started having some contractions later in the afternoon but still wasn't really dilating. Since I still wasn't as far along as the doctor would have liked, we held off on starting the pitocin until 4:00 am Friday morning. We all settled in for the night around 10:00 pm and tried to rest. However, I started having pretty good contractions around midnight and never did really get more than about 1.2 to 2 hours of rest. The nurse came in at 4:00 to start the pitocin. Contractions started to get more intense and more frequent but I was still only about 2 cm dilated and 80% effaced when the nurse shift occurred at 7:00 am. I was very frustrated to say the least!
The doctor came in around 9:00 am and checked me again and said he would come back around noon and break my water if I hadn't done so on my own by then. My contractions were still strong and frequent, just nothing was happening it seemed! The nurse checked me again around 10:30 am and I was finally at around 4cm dilated and fully effaced. I was already so exhausted and the contractions were so intense from the pitocin, I had the epidural started then. AMAZING! I am so happy I made that decision. Mainly, I was already so tired and we weren't sure when the baby was going to be born that I just wanted to be able to rest.
The doctor came back around 1:00 pm and broke my water. I was finally at 8cm dilated. That helped raise my spirits as it felt like I had finally made some progress. So the nurse would check every couple hours to see if I was fully dilated so I could start pushing. We finally got there around 7:00 pm. The nurses changed again (I went through 4 shifts while in labor) and I was finally ready to go around 7:30. The baby had finally dropped down low enough and the fun was ready to begin.
My nurse was amazing and coached me on when exactly to push and when to rest. Anyway, I pushed for about 1.5 hours with the nurse when she said it was time to get the doctor. That was all the motivation I needed to get this thing done! When she finally decided to make her way out, it was nothing short of amazing. I couldn't believe she was finally here and that I had done it.
She was placed on my chest right away and I was just balling my eyes out. It was truly a magical moment. I couldn't have done any of it without my DH. He was amazing. And seeing him with our daughter has been the biggest joy of all. I'm tearing up now just thinking about it.
Anyway, this got really long. Sorry! Guess I just kind of wanted to capture everything before I forgot it all!
She has a full head of hair, which I wasn't expecting at all. I think her eyes will stay blue but I guess it's too early to tell.
Oh, and we finally picked a middle name. She is officially Piper June!
!!! I just figured out how to add a picture. 
I am 6dp5dfet and a POAS addict
I'm sure you were just exhausted!! I'm so happy that all worked out. Oh - and I LOVED the epidural, too. 
