Leah's arrival!

Leah was born 8/24/08. She was 7 lbs 10 oz and 21 1/4" long. she has blue eyes and lots of dark brown hair. She was about 3 weeks early, my due date was 9/13/08. I had gone to the doctors on Friday 8/22 and I was 3 cm dialated and thinned out so the doc stripped my membranes. I really didn't think I would go into labor so soon. Saturday during the day I started to get a lot of contractions but nothing too consistant. By that night they were getting stronger and closer together but I still didn't think it meant anything. Sean went to bed and I stayed up trying to figure out if I was really in labor or not. I tried to go to bed at 11:00pm but was back up around 12:30am in a lot more pain. By 1:00am I decided to time the contractions. Then I realized this might really be it. They were about 5 min apart and lasting a min or so. By 2:00am I was in a lot of pain and at 2:30am I called the hospital and they told me to come in since I had a quick delivery with Brynn. So I got Sean up around 3:00am and called our wonderful neighbor Andrea to come stay with Brynn. By the time I finished getting my things together, and stopping to breathe through the contractions, we got out the door around 3:30am. When we got to the hospital I was having to stop in the halls to breathe through each contraction...I felt like I was in a movie! I got checked in around 4:00am or so and the intern doctor told me I needed to wait and hour to make sure I was progressing on my own before she would order me an epidural. Around 5:00am she checked me again and I was 4-5cm...so she ordered my epidural and we were official checked in the hospital. I knew we wouldn't be leaving without our baby!!!! It still seemed so surreal to me and I couldn't believe I was going to be having Leah Jane so early! I thought for sure they would send me home and tell me it was false labor! Around 6:30am or so I FINALLY got my epidural...I was in a lot of pain at that point and contracting very close together. The nurse said they were very strong contractions too! My doctor (Dr. George) came in at that point and broke my water. They epi worked good for a half an hour or so then I started to feel the contractions on just my left side. With Brynn I didn't feel anything once I got the epi so I was very disapointed! I didn't want to feel these contractions anymore. The nurse came and checked me and said I was progressing pretty fast so that is probably why I was feeling things again. After that, time kind of blurs for me...I was feeling contractions and not able to rest...I was anxious...I just wanted to see our baby! Around 9:00am I told the nurse I could feel a lot of pressure and she checked me. She said Leah's head was right there and I was 10cm!! She found Dr. George and around 9:45am I started to push. At this point I wasn't feeling much of anything again and was able to push just a few times before Leah Jane made her arrival at 9:57AM!!! She was perfect and I felt great!!! She nursed immediately and it was love at first site. I'm a mom of TWO beautiful girls!!!