buck bites: And There She Was.

And we waited and waited and waited some more. Like I said at the time we were not aware that they were a little full, so we were getting a little shall I say, irritated. We had arrived at the hospital at 10:00am and it was now 2PM. I was STARVING! The only thing I had eaten all day was my last bowl of cereal at 6AM that morning. I felt bad for Josh so I told him to go and get himself something to eat. With one very important rule, DO NOT BRING ANY FOOD BACK HERE!! The nurse made it very clear that I was not able to eat anything and it's just down right cruel to eat in front of a pregnant woman when she can't. So off he went and there I sat. I did express to the nurse again just how hungry I was and she goes "well I can get you some juice." Gee thanks, that'll hold me over for all of 1 minute. I would of rather had a stick of gum.

It is now 3PM. Josh has returned and I was ready to leave. In fact, we both were. Five hours of sitting around was really getting to us and I finally told Josh to get the doctor so we could go home. He leaves and soon returns with her. She does one last check and that's when we hear "well you're at a 4." WHAT?! At this point I was slightly surprised and slightly annoyed. After 5 hours of sitting around I just wanted to leave and eat. She did tell us we had two options. The first option was to stay and have the doctor get things going. The second option was to leave and probably come back within the next day or two. Seeing as how I was now in "active labor" leaving was NOT an option.

We were now on our way back to a "real" room and boy let me tell you, once you have your own room people just start flying in left and right. I had been in the room for all of 2 minutes when a girl shows up to draw blood, and my nurse comes in do to the IV. Now I LOVED my nurse but the whole IV thing wasn't working for her and after blowing a vein she, as promised, called in the IV specialists. Sometime around 5PM the on call doctor(who was GREAT)came in and informed me that she was going to break my water, perfect! I was then informed that the anesthesiologist was on the floor and if I wanted an epidural now would be the time to get it. Here's where I became conflicted. Did I want one, heck yeah. After I was given Pitocin with Max it all went downhill so that epidural was AMAZING. I felt nothing the rest of the time. But here I sat not in any pain (yet) but knowing that I would eventually want one. So my nurse reminded me that this was my second and it could go quick. Okay send him in!

So there I sat, literally, because once you have the epidural you can't move. So there's no walking around.
As far as everything moving quickly, well not so much., but as I said my nurse was awesome and we kept busy with conversation. That is until I hit 7 centimeters. PAIN!! Literally out of nowhere. That's when I learned that the epidural (you know that thing that's suppose to block pain) was no longer effective. I felt everything! Words cannot describe what I was feeling at that moment. I remember the nurse checking me once, rolling me over, and the next thing I hear is her on the phone saying "we need a doctor in here, NOW!" Time did not exist at this point and all I remember was feeling like I was going to pass out. I kept telling myself to keep my eyes shut becasue if I opened them I knew I would lose the little bit of focus I still had left. And 15 minutes later, there she was. Three weeks early but completely PERFECT!

I was later asked by someone (someone who does not have children) if I counted her fingers and toes after she was born, you know to make sure they were all there. Ah NO! I was more concerned about knowing, was she really a girl? We were told at 21 weeks that we were having a girl but you never really know for sure until the end. I kept thinking about the cute little girl's room we had redone at home and all those cute little dresses hanging in the closet. I LOVE Max to death but had there been an oops on the ultrasound reading, I think I would of cried (just a little) had she been a boy. At one point during my pregnancy I told my sister (who kept on buying us girl clothes) that if I have a boy, she will be returning all the girl clothes.

And here we are almost one year to the day later. I'm always amazed at how fast that first year goes by. It's bittersweet! You can't wait for them to grow and hit all those milestones but at the same time you just want that tiny baby back in your arms. One things for sure, she is not a baby anymore. She is quickly venturing her way into the toddler years. I guess I'll have to soak them up as much as a can because I know all too quickly she'll be in school, hanging out with friends, and doing her own thing.

Life, it really does go by way too fast!