Parker Kate Arrives

From 5:00 am to 8:00 am I labored with the epidural.  Which have I mentioned was AMAZING. ha.  I could feel pressure when the contractions would come and I loved watching it on the monitor.  The monitor would register how intense it was and I couldn't get over that I wasn't feeling any pain.  Our families were in and out between these times as well.  Everyone was just so excited for her to get here.  I kept telling everyone to be patient because I didn't think she would arrive until the afternoon.  The nurses kept telling me that first time moms dilate slowly. Last time we checked was at 3:30 when I was a 4.

Side funny story: My mom, Debbie and JP were all sitting in the L&D room with me chatting around 6:00 am.  I saw/heard something fall off the bed.  I told mom to see what it was.  She said, "ummm that was your leg."  She tried to put it back up in the bed and it just kept sliding off.  I could not stop laughing.  Apparently the epidural was working.  They also give you a button to push every 15 minutes to give yourself more epidural.  You better believe I was pushing this thing every 15 minutes on the dot.

7:50 am - My doctor finally arrived to check me out.  I had dilated to an 8!  Woohoo!  I was so excited and ready to get this pushing started....and then they told me my doctor had a scheduled surgery from 8:00 am - 10:00 am and she did not want me delivering without her.  Ugh, more waiting.  It turns out this was actually probably a good thing.  Parker was gonna be good and ready when I could finally start pushing.

10:20 am - My doctor comes back in to check on me again...finally.  I was at a 10.  "You ready?" she says.  OMG, this is happening, like right now.  She told me to hold my legs and that we would do a practice push.  Now, I consider myself to be kinda strong, but trying to lift two dead weight legs was a challenge.  She counted down and I did a "practice push."  She then said "ok, stop, this baby is coming, no more practicing."

The next contraction, I started pushing.  I didn't want to push too hard at first.  I was scared from previous stories I had heard... hemorrhoids, ripping, hernia, etc. Doc said, you are gonna have to push harder than that.

JP also went into coach mode.  He was holding my leg, yelling "puuuuush!"   You would have thought he had done this before.  JP, is there something you need to tell me?

I pushed the next two contractions.  This was by far the coolest thing I had ever done.  I got a serious adrenaline rush.  I actually thought this was fun.  On that third contraction and push, Parker Kate McEnery arrived into this world.  I couldn't believe it.  She was finally here!  It was all such a blur and a miracle!