The Hopewell's!!!: Caroline's Labor and Delivery!! (Better late than never!!)

Now that Caroline is six weeks old, I have finally found the time to sit down and blog about the wonderful day she was born. On September 23rd, Scott and I woke up at 4:00 a.m. to get ready to head to the hospital for our induction. We arrived at labor and delivery at 5:30 a.m. where our nurse took us back to our room and got the show on the road. Dr. Schmidt arrived at 7:30, broke my water and started pitocin. I went into the hospital dilated at a 2 and 80% effaced. At around 10:30 a.m. I received my epidural which knocked out all contraction pains, the only thing I could feel was my stomach tighten up whenever a contraction would come on. That was a blessing because according to my monitor the contractions were extremely strong and about a minute apart. Having such strong contractions we thought for sure I would dilate pretty quickly... we were wrong. I was slow at progressing. The nurse had me on my right side, left side, hands and knees (which was not fun), and every which way you can imagine to get the baby to move down. I finally made it to 8 centimeters at about 2:30 p.m. and stalled out. Each hour passed until 4:45 and I was still at an 8 and 90% effaced. At this point I was exhausted, even though you don't feel your contractions with an epidural, your body is still working extremely hard. Poor little Caroline's heart would sky rocket at each contraction which was stressing me out as well. Finally, Dr. Schmidt arrived, checked me and informed us that she was head down, but face up and her little shoulder was lodged, which was keeping me from dilating any further. She told me that we could try to wait it out a little longer and see if her position would change any, but chances were slim to none and the chances of infection go up when you stall out for so long. I started crying because after 10 hours in labor and having to head to the O.R. didn't make me happy, but I was utterly exhausted, ready to see my baby and under no circumstances wanted to pose any risk to Caroline or myself. So there I went!! I forgot to mention how incredibly awesome my Dr. was and allowed my mom in the operating room as well. So I had double the support, which was awesome. At this point, I don't remember too much but struggling to keep my eyes open and feeling lots of tugging. about 15 minutes in, Dr. Schmidt told me I was going to feel some pressure, and then at 5:30 p.m. I heard her say "Hello Beautiful" and raise her up so I could see her. Tears started streaming, I heard her beautiful cry, and then I was passed out again!! Scott went with her down to the nursery where the rest of the family were anxiously waiting to see her! It was the most wonderful day of my life, besides marrying Scott. Sorry if it seems I've rambled on and on, but a lot of this is for my memory as well! Here are a few pictures of our day!