The story

So I have some limited time to sit down now and go through the birth story of Max's long-awaited arrival into this world.

Come Saturday morning, no contractions or active labor through the night. Leon and I had breakfast at Cafe Barrone (surprise) and headed back to the hospital for an induction.

This time, the hospital was not as crazy and I was able to check in right away around 8:45am. One of the nurses even recognized me from the day before to let the others know "no need to check her, she's already 6 cm dilated, so she's staying".

The process of getting checked in takes a long time. You go to a labor room, get changed, you're asked a number of questions about your health history, get an IV set-up, talk to the an anesthesiologist etc, etc.

It was a good hour before they were even going to start the pitocin. Then came some trouble with my IV line, so it wasn't until 11:00am that the pitocin started. Though I felt contractions about an hour in, they certainly were not what I was expecting as far as pain. They were coming about every 3 minutes. This surprised the nurse and doc, who then at 1:00pm decided to break my water. This is where the real contractions started! Before I knew it, the contractions went from a pain level of 4-5 to about an 8 and they were 1 minute apart. I couldn't even use the restroom without having about 3 contractions in between.

Though I went in thinking I would try without pain meds, I was calling the anesthesiologist. The downside of the epidural is that it did not work all the way for me. Only my left side was numb and I was still about a 6 on a pain level...I couldn't even talk through the contractions. Poor anesthesiologist felt bad that as many different meds he pumped into me, none were helping.

It wasn't long however, before it was time to push, around 4:00pm. I pushed for one hour (which actually felt better with the contractions), and into the world came Maxwell! He came out screaming, which was funny. They set him on my stomach and Leon got to cut the cord.

Though I am sure most parents feel this, there isn't a description for brining a child into the world. We were elated and in awe. I couldn't believe this squirming baby was just inside me and now out into the world.

Everyone has asked me before the birth, "Are you nervous?" meaning, about the labor. My answer was yes, but not due to the labor, but about being a parent!

We just hope to be the best we can and learn along the way :)