Let me tell you about labor

Well, everyone, I did it-- I hatched or popped or whatever you want to call it. On my due date, Friday the 28th, I started having contractions around 2pm. But I ignored them. I mean, I've been having regular contractions here and there for a couple weeks. So I decided to ignore them until they hurt a lot.

So, the day wears on and I keep having contractions about ever 15 minutes. At about 9pm I thought that maybe these would turn into real labor, so I start cleaning my house and taking care of other things that I needed to do. Come 11pm, my contractions move to 10 minutes apart and start getting more breathtaking. At 1am, Jay and I are just getting to bed, but my contractions are now 5 minutes apart and very painful. At 2:30, my water broke.

We get to the hospital and by 5am I got an epidural. I didn't want to originally-- I always wanted to have a natural labor. But since I'd already been in labor for 13 hours and had only dilated a half a centimeter, I realized that I had a long night ahead of me, especially since I hadn't had any sleep. (Also, come to find out later, Leisl was facing the wrong way-- she was looking down and forward instead of up and back-- and this is why I was having such terrible back pain while I still felt my contractions. Back labor is a killer.) So I got an epidural, and I slept. That was at 5am.

At noon, I got a dose of Pitocin to speed up my contractions. By 2, I was fully dilated. After the doctor turned Leisl so she was facing the right way, it only took another 45 minutes, and she was born!

So labor was mostly uneventful. Delivery was fun and a lot easier than I thought it would be. Leisl was born 9 lbs 7 oz and 21 inches long-- quite the good sized baby (must've been t he chocolate pudding I've been eating). The picture at the top is her at about 1 hour old, and she was still puffy. She's lost her puffiness mostly.

Anyway, she's very healthy and strong, and very peaceful. I just brought her home today. She has chubby cheeks, but she's not as chubby looking as she sounds (nine pounds on 21 inches makes for a cute little round baby). And she doesn't look like either me or Jay. Yet.

Karrissa had her baby yesterday at noon. I only know her baby was around 6 pounds. I saw her husband as Jay and I were leaving, and we were in a hurry.

Anyway, life's good! If you want to see more pictures, you can go to www.spencersrock.com/leisl. Talk to you later!

jerilynn