Haley Grace's Birth

Haley Grace decided to make her grand entrance into the world on her due date - December 14, 1999. I woke up at 3:35 a. m. and had to go to the bathroom. When I laid back down in bed, I felt "funny." I got back up and when I did , my water broke. I woke my husband up and we began to get ready to go to the hospital. We left home at about 4:10. I began to have contractions as we left our house. It is a 45 minute drive to the hospital. When my contractions started, they were two minutes apart. They were fairly strong at this point. By the time we arrived at the hospital at 4:45, my contractions were coming right on top of each other; I had no break in between each contraction. The labor and delivery nurse checked me and said that I was dilated to 3 cm. Because I was in such intense pain, she offered me a shot for pain about thirty-five minutes later. She asked me to turn over to get the shot. I could not turn over. So, she checked me again and I was 6 cm. Her words were, "You don't need a shot. You need an epidural!" My husband and I could not believe that my labor was progressing so rapidly!! At about 6:15, I could feel extreme pressure, and I asked my husband to go get a nurse. She check me for the third time, and I was 9 cm dilated. Since this was our first child, we were very surprised that it was happening so fast!! My doctor arrived at about 7:00. I pushed for about 30 minutes. I finally had her at 7:38 a. m. with the assistance of forceps. I had an episiotomy, a very big vaginal side wall tear, and a uretheral tear. She was the most beautiful baby I had ever seen. It was a very painful experience, but one that was very worthwhile - and one that I would do all over again!!

- Heather