The Birth of Faith

It was 10:30pm on Wednesday night, October 13. We were scheduled to go in early Thursday morning where Noel would break my water and induce labor. Jeff and I were crawling into bed, well, for me, it was more of heave myself into bed, when I felt the first of my water breaking.

I went to the bathroom to confirm, and it was definitely my water breaking. I called out to Jeff to come to the bathroom, and with nervous excitement, I told him my water has just broken. He went to the top of the stairs and yelled down for my mom to come upstairs...we would be meeting Baby Faith soon!

And then the contractions started. Whatever I had been feeling for the last week was NOTHING compared to this immense and indescribable pain wracking my body. It started at my spine and intensified around my sides and met at my belly button. It was like a leg cramp but no relief. And this happened every 5 or so minutes.

The drive to the hospital, although only 10 minutes away, was hard. Jeff was trying to remain calm and telling me to try and relax my body, but there was no way I could relax. Why do they tell you to do that?

We checked in, and got settled into the room. For 3 hours I wanted to go natural, and when I hit 4cm and the contractions were coming closer and closer together, and I literally felt like I couldn't do it anymore, I asked for the epidural.

And my life changed.

I slept, chatted, and enjoyed my time watching my contractions on the monitor.

By 8:15am I was dilated to 10cm, and Noel had just arrived at the hospital. She told me to labor down, so they rolled me to my side for 30 minutes. Then at 8:45 I started pushing, and by 9:14am I held Baby Faith in my arms!

She was 7lb 8oz of pure beauty (even with all the gross stuff on her) and 20 inches long!

Although I wouldn't say I "enjoyed" labor, it was an overall positive experience. :)