Precious Little Paper Pleasures: Due date...ready or not, Baby!

This is a long one...if you are just looking for the final result, scroll to paragraph five.
On Thursday, March 3rd, I had my weekly check-up to see what progress I had made towards finally meeting this baby. I was dilated to about a three and my OB was scheduled to be at the hospital on my due date--the following Tuesday. Aside from the fact that we had no clue if we were expecting a boy or a girl and were dying to find out, I really liked the idea of my own doctor delivering my baby so we scheduled an induction for the due date if there was no baby at that point. Howie and I decided to go out for dinner after the doctor's office and headed over to Granite City. We had driven separately and I remember on my way to dinner I called my carpool buddy/co-worker/friend (most importantly:)) Sarah to tell her about the appointment. Over dinner, Howie and I continued kicking around some name possibilities as we had a short list, but still weren't settled on a name for either gender.

On Friday, March 4th, I awoke to get ready for work and was certain my water had broken. I called my parents, Howie called his mom, I called work, I called Sarah (she was going to pick up some lesson plans and such on her way to work), and then I did a lot of texting. My parents packed up and headed north from Des Moines, Howie's mom changed her flight so she would be in later that day, and Howie and I got ready to head to the hospital. I went through the pantry and consumed what I remember as being a large quantity of food (I had heard they don't let you eat once you are at the hospital and this girl hates to skip a meal--especially when I was aware of how much work my body was about to do). We made sure that our schnoodle would be well cared for (thanks to our dear friends and neighbors at the time) and headed to the hospital. Once at the hospital, they did some tests to check and see if my water had truly broken. As Howie and I sat there, we decided once and for all what our name choices were. After sitting at the hospital for a couple of hours, we came to find out that my water had not actually broken. (The doctors say it can be anywhere from a trickle to a gush--if you've never experienced it, how are you to know for sure). So we headed home. My parents were halfway here and decided to come up anyway and Howie's mom was en route.

Saturday morning I woke up to a text from my brother-in-law, Andy, that he and Melissa were at the hospital in Florida as she was in labor. My contractions seemed to be closer together that morning than they had been on Friday and as the day progressed, my contractions felt like they were coming quicker and quicker. Our niece, Lillian, was born that morning and I was convinced that my labor was beginning. I didn't want to go in if it wasn't the real deal, but I was also fairly certain that the contractions were closer together (between 3 and 5 minutes). Howie and I went for a walk that day to see if I could progress things a little farther and on our way back down our street, our neighbor up the street came walking down the driveway with raspberry tea that was also supposed to help. Went to the hospital after the walk and some tea--second false alarm. I was given a drug that was either to speed up things if I was in the throws of the real deal or stop the contractions completely if they were false. They sent me home--contractions stopped and I went to bed. I slept in Sunday morning and took it easy all day.

Monday morning I woke up and had no baby so I went to work. I can't count the number of times people stopped me and said, "I thought you had the baby." Unfortunately not. I figured if I couldn't get myself into labor, maybe the kinders would do it.

Tuesday morning I woke up and was having no contractions so I called to make sure they had space for me and headed in to be induced. I said good-bye to my parents and Howie and I headed in. At about 7:45, they started me on Pitocin. Mild contractions began and at about 9:00 they came in to break my water. My parents and Raline came to the hospital some time mid-morning and we chatted as I breathed through my contractions. My dad came in with a sandwich (another someone who hates to skip a meal) and I sent him away--not cool to eat a sandwich in front of a laboring mama. At about 1:30, Howie and my dad were keeping me company while Raline and my mom went to get some lunch. As we were talking, my water really broke. My contractions went from fairly bearable to stars-spinning-around-my-head pain. I had said to Howie ahead of time that I would ask for an epidural if I needed one, but he wasn't allowed to push it on me before that point. I stayed true to my word...the moment came where I needed the epidural and I asked for it. Unfortunately, my blood pressure was running a little high so they wanted to do blood work first. They assured me they would be as quick as they could and in the meantime the nurse administered something that she said wouldn't take the pain away, but it would make me care less about it. This was a fairly accurate description as in the 90 seconds between contractions I was near sleeping. About 2 hours after I asked for the epidural, I got it and was able to rest for the big finale. Around 6:15, I told my nurse I was feeling pressure. At 6:30, I began pushing with Howie by my side and at 7:07 P.M. we found out that we had a baby boy--nope, the doctor corrected, a baby girl--to welcome into our lives. We were astounded as we were certain (based on the Paper statistics) that we would be having a boy. Stephanie Jo had arrived at 7 pounds, 5 1/2 ounces and 19 inches and we were in love. Howie and I spent about forty-five minutes bonding with her and then Howie headed out to tell the anxious grandparents that they had a granddaughter. At 9:00 we headed to the post-partum room where we would be for the next couple of nights. Below are some pictures of the most exciting day of our lives...