Natalie was born at 5:12 a.m. on 10/23 weighing 8lbs 5oz. She's 20.5 inches long. http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/e...k/DSCF6766.jpg She looks like her daddy, which is only fair considering our son looks like me!My story: On Thursday morning I saw a little bloody show, and around 8 a.m. had a small gush of pinkish fluid. Contractions continued all day from 5-15 minutes apart. I had another little gush of fluid around 2:00. By around 4-5:00, they were 2-4 minutes apart. I could still talk through them, but it helped to be swaying or sitting on my exercise ball. We got to the hospital at 6:30 p.m. (I was GBS+, unfortunately, so we couldn't hold off forever.) Was only dilated to 2 cm upon arrival, and I was 3 cm when I got my epidural at around 9:00. (I
to all you natural mamas--I cannot do it!) I tried to sleep but was so uncomfortable in the hospital bed with tubes and wires everywhere, a blood pressure cuff that took my BP every 15 minutes, a nurse coming in to check on me every 20 minutes, a horrible pillow, etc. I was really miserable, so tired and STARVING, but of course they would not let me eat anything.At 4 a.m., I was only at 6 cm, and I cried because it seemed like I was going to have to be tired and hungry forever. The nurse stepped out for a few minutes, and when she came back I asked her to help me roll onto my left side. With the next contraction, I felt the baby squirm, and then there was a pop and a HUGE explosion of water that shot out the side of the bed and hit the nurse and splashed all over the floor. She checked me and said, "Oh my gosh, the baby is right there. Don't push! Fire drill time!" She ran out to call the doctor, who was still at home, so we waited about 20 minutes for her to get there and get her stuff set up. I pushed once, and Natalie was out! Even with the epidural, I could feel her leaving my body. I don't remember that with my son...it was amazingly cool and almost uncomfortably strange at the same time.
It was crazy--6 cm to complete in one contraction, and baby out in one push. I didn't tear at all, and I can't believe how GOOD I feel! I was out of bed within 3 hours...can sit down and stand up without pain. My bleeding has almost stopped, except when I nurse her. I'm taking Ibuprofen and using Afterease because the afterpains are pretty bad. My biggest complaint is that the pediatrician won't let her go home for 48 hours because of my GBS status, so we are stuck here until tomorrow. Other than that, I'm super happy overall with how everything went!
Natalie is quiet and content. She's a good nurser, but her latch is really strong. I can't wait for my milk to come in so she'll be doing some swallowing instead of just sucking and sucking and sucking. *ouch!*
. I was lucky they let me out as soon as I was ready to go even though my status is unknown (and they always assume positive). Hopefully you'll be home in your own bed with your little girl very soon 
