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Amanda Rae's Birth

I was expecting with my first child and loving being pregnant!  I was about a
week past my due date when I went to my OB for some news.  For days, I had
been walking up and down stairs (as I heard this would bring on contractions)
and begging and pleading to God to start my labor.  I had waited all this time
and wanted to "open the package."  I did not know if I was having a girl or a
boy.  I hadn't had an ultrasound.  I basically just had a perfect pregnancy
with no complications whatsoever, except that this baby was enjoying my womb
and apparently didn't want to leave it! 

During my entire pregnancy, I was hoping for a little-bitty baby so that
delivery wouldn't hurt so much!  I know, I know... stop laughing.  Well, on
that Thursday meeting with my OB, she scheduled me for induction the next days
and added "Let's get this baby out before it hits nine pounds."  Needless to
say, this was the first I realized that my baby would be a whopper.  I come
from a long line of whoppers and I guess I shouldn't have been surprised.
But, I wasn't THAT big so I held out hope.  Well, this baby had made itself
perfectly comfortable wrapped around my spine.  You could literally feel the
kicks and movement throughout my lower back.  I even bulged a little there and
had severe back pain now and then.

Well, my husband and I showed up at the hospital that Friday in the wee hours
of the morning.  My doc immediately broke my water and hooked me up to the
meds.   I tried to avoid the epidural, but just couldn't stand it anymore
after about 2 hours of labor.  Now, this baby was coming out fast.  When I sat
up to receive my spinal injection, I felt a gush of warm fluid.  I just knew I
was hemorrhaging, but they wouldn't believe me.  It was the first time I had
sat up since my water being broken.  Silly me.  

After only four hours of labor, my child was well on its way to meet the
world.  I was still experiencing excruciating pain.  When they realized my
severe pain, they gave me a booster.  All I could think of was, "if this was
WITH the epidural, how can those women cope without one!"  My OB had to use
forceps to help the process along.  I was so unbelievably tired of pushing and
just yelled for her to "PULL, PULL!"  

Finally, out came Amanda Rae.  She is a beautiful 9 lbs. 11 ozs. baby!  A huge
one.  I have the pictures to prove it.  And I can't believe that I had her
inside me all this time, growing and growing.  It's still a miracle to me.
But I took Darvocet AFTER the delivery and couldn't bear to see her for a
while.  I just wanted to sleep!

Now, the funny part of this story is as follows:  Two years later, I gave
birth to my son with another induced birth (apparently, my womb is pretty
comfy since my kids won't leave without a little urging).  I also had an
epidural this time, especially with my last experience.  Except, this time, I
had to watch the monitor to even know I was having contractions.  I felt
absolutely nothing.  Took only three easy pushes to get Aaron Glenn through
the delivery.  He was a little whopper too, 8 lbs. 10 ozs. 

Only after this delivery did I realize that my first epidural did not take.
That possibility never occurred to me.  I was very naive in the beginning of
my motherhood, obviously.

Now, Amanda and Aaron are 7 and 5 years old.  Everyone says you will forget
the pain and I suppose you do, but I'll never forget these experiences.  I
still laugh about them today.  Its downright hilarious.