Logan's Arrival

I'll admit, I was nervous about going through the labor process.  I don't know how any first time mom could avoid being a little bit scared. Thankfully, the whole process went very smoothly!  I was admitted into the hospital at 8pm on Tuesday, July 23, 2013.  Jacob and I spent the night in the very comfy birthing suite and I slept great even through my contractions. Wednesday morning Dr. Asis came in at 7:30 and broke my water and they started me on Pitocin at 8:30. At this point I was having regular contractions that were not painful and was still only dilated to a 1. After the Pitocin, my contractions got much stronger and were every 2 to 5 minutes.  This is the only period of time when I felt pain and even shed a few tears. Dr. Asis checked me again around 11:30 (the timing is fuzzy here because I was in pain) and I was at a 3 and really hurting. I asked for an epidural and they were super quick to get it to me. The epidural itself was pretty much painless. I only felt the initial numbing shot he gave me & it was quick like a bee sting and over fast.  After that I felt no pain and was asleep very peacefully by noon. When I woke up at 2pm I was still feeling fantastic!  They said they'd give me 30 more minutes to rest and then they would sit me up to try and speed things along. I sent this text message to my parents and sister in the waiting room.  Since they'd been at the hospital pretty much all day, my mom decided to go home to let the dogs out. Kiley went to take Barrett to the babysitter and then to Starbucks to make a coffee run. Karen and Jade went to go get lunch. That left only my dad in the waiting room. I was awake at this point so my dad came into the room with me and Jacob to wait. Dr. Asis came in at 2:30 to check me and I was at a 6.  He said he'd be back in 2 hours to check me again. The nurse sat me up and then she came back in about 10 minutes later and said she didn't like what the baby's heart rate was doing.  She said he must not like sitting up so she moved me onto my side and stayed in the room watching the monitors.  After another 10 minutes of staring at the monitor she said she wanted to check me again. My dad hid behind a magazine across the room and Jacob sat by him while she checked me.  As soon as she checked, she patted me on the arm and said, "It's going to be a lot sooner!" Then she paged Dr. Asis and said I was "fully there".  My dad heard this and said, "Does that mean she's at a 10?!" & the nurse said yes! It had only been 20 minutes since I was at a 6!! So, my dad immediately left the room & I told Jacob to text our moms and my sister to let them know. There was a little bit of a hustle while they got the room ready & after 45 minutes of pushing (this was not painful...I only felt pressure...but it sure was a workout!) Logan Guy Estes was born at 3:44pm! I can't begin to describe the extreme happiness and overflowing love that I felt as they placed him on my chest. That little wrinkled face and head full of dark hair just melted my heart. I was so wrapped up in looking at my adorable son that I barely registered Jacob cutting the cord.
Overall the whole labor experience was much much more painless than I was expecting. I went into the hospital expecting the worst pain I've ever experienced and in reality it was not bad at all. I feel I must also mention that I typically have a very low pain tolerance.  Now, I won't talk about how I felt after the epidural wore off. That was...not pleasant! All I will say is THANK GOODNESS for pain medicine! Now, as I sit typing this exactly 2 weeks later, I can honestly say I feel pretty much normal.  It's hard to believe that this beautiful baby boy was growing inside me for 39 weeks and now he is in my arms and he is PERFECT!