When I went to the OB on July 1st, I wasn't dilated all that much, but the doctor thought I would go into labor on my own over the weekend. So Travis and I did a ton of walking around on Friday and Saturday to naturally induce me, and maybe have contractions start. On July 3rd around 4:30pm I went to the hospital because I thought my water had been leaking all weekend and contractions were coming and going. Travis and I didn't think I was going to be admitted because my contractions weren't strong enough, so I thought I would have been sent home. I had already been scheduled for an induction on July 4th at 7pm if I didn't go into labor naturally, so I figured they would just check me and have me wait it out at our house.
They decided to admit me then because I was dilated to 3cm which I was surprised about. The walking helped!! So the OB broke my water and started me on pitocin. I wasn't too thrilled about that because I had heard that Pitocin makes your contractions unbearable. I had mild contractions for about 2-3 hours, and was able to tolerate them for the most part. The only thing I had to deal with at that point was hunger, it had been about 7pm and I hadn't eaten since 11am that morning. Travis of course was also complaining about being hungry and I wanted him to be alert as possible, so he and my Dad went to Burger King which made me super jealous! Right after he left my contractions got horrendous, they were pretty unbearable. I'm happy my Mom had been in the room with me, because they started to come every 1-2 minutes and the OB checked me and I was dilated to 5cm. I wanted to go as long as possible without the epidural because I knew once I had it labor would slow down.
As soon as Travis came back I decided to get the epidural which was a tad bit painful but what was worse was sitting still while getting it done because the contractions were so intense.. Everyone who has had a natural birth I admire you! I seriously had tried to do it for a few hours but knew that it definitely wasn't for me. The epidural was a lifesaver! I couldn't believe how quickly I felt better, and I didn't feel any pain at all. The only thing was it slowed down my progress. I was stalled at 6cm for like 3-4 hours. Finally at 2am I was at 10cm and my epidural had wore off, and I started pushing. It was probably one of the hardest things I'll ever do. Hannah didn't want to come out, and I was so exhausted from pushing for an hour I thought it would never be over. If it wasn't for my husband and labor nurse I would have never been able to get past pushing. They were great motivators! Finally at 3:27am on July 4th, our beautiful baby girl, Hannah Grace Yee was born at 7lbs. 6 oz. and 20 inches long. In all my labor and delivery was about 9 hours long, which I don't think is terrible at all. I had a fairly easy delivery compared to a lot of other first time mothers I know.
The feelings I felt when I finally saw Hannah were unbelievable, the minute I saw her my whole life changed, and you just have this huge indescribable amount of love towards your baby. You really can't explain it. I must have cried non-stop for a half an hour, the feelings were overwhelming, she's just perfect, I don't even have the words for it.
Travis and I just marveled at her, and couldn't believe she was finally here after 9 long months of pregnancy. I said throughout my pregnancy I would never go through this again, after Hannah's birth I would definitely want to have another child. I'm so in love with her. She's just perfect in every way, shape and form.
More to come about Hannah! Here are some newborn pictures!
