Wondering how the birth went... well... here is a short version!On Monday, January 9, Frank and I were getting ready to go to bed. Shortly after getting in the bed, I was not feeling like myself. My stomach was achy and I thought it was just something we had for dinner. About 10 mins later I thought it was early labor pains, so I went and sat/bounced on my yoga ball. At about 10:30pm I decided to text my sister (Hilary) to get her advice on whether to call the doctor or not. We chatted back and forth for about a half hour and then we decided to go ahead and call.
The on-call doctor told me it was likely early labor signs, but to keep better track of the contractions (because that is what I was experiencing!). About 45 mins later, Frank and I determined that the contractions were 3-4 mins apart, so we decided to head to the hospital, and I called the on-call doctor again. And Frank made his phone calls on the way.
We arrived about 1:00am on Tuesday, January 10, and after a few reviews with the nurse, it was determined that I was definitely beginning to labor our Baby BOG! In the beginning I was still 80% effaced (thinned out) and 3 cms dialated. I made it to 6 cms before getting the epidural (poor Frank until then)! Every few hours the nurse would come and check in on the progress... and was slow going. At 6:00am I had reached 9cm and 100% effaced, so we thought for sure our Baby BOG would arrive by 9am... but then 9am arrived but Baby BOG had not. So we thought for sure... noon! And again... we were wrong! At this point the doctor was concerned about the strength of the contractions, not only was not 10 cms, but Baby BOG had not descended as far down the pelvic region as needed/expected. So I had to receive an internal contraction monitor to know for certain if the contractions were strong enough... after a short review, the doctor was comfortable with the reviews.
Finally, around 1pm I had reached 10 cms and Baby BOG was in a great place for me to begin the "labor down", basically pushing until the doctor was needed! We did this for two straight hours... and I didn't even break a sweat ;-) Baby BOG was in position and the doctor was ready to receive Baby BOG and with a little assistance, "the vacuum", Baby BOG had arrived at 3:39pm on Tuesday, January 10!
Frank, Hilary and I cried for what seemed like forever... Frank and I were later asked about our reaction to "it's a girl". And we thought about the question and never realized that it was actually "told" us. We were too excited that our Baby BOG had finally arrived and thankful for the blessing that God had given us.
