The night she FINALLY arrived...

I was determined I would have my baby on March 3.  After dealing with some minor contractions the night before, calling in, and being told by the doctor it was my call, I decided regardless of the pain level of contractions today, we were going in to the hospital one way or another.  On Saturday night I tried spicy food, but I felt that just wasn't enough.  So this is what my day of labor enducing events entailed for Sunday--

• Lunch with my mom at Jason's, where I got the salad (said the enduce labor) bar with Balsamic Vinigerette (also claims to "enduce" labor)
• Setting up Aubrey's pack-n-play--thought maybe heavy lifting might help with it
• Vaccuuming the entire first floor and steps to the upstairs
• Finally, taking Caddy on a walk around the entire neighborhood at 8pm

So when I arrived back home after my long and tiring walk, I had begun to have contractions, that were about 5-6 minutes apart--so I gave Drew a heads up that I would be calling the doctor.  We continued with our plan, Drew showered, I put on make up, waiting for the doc to call back, but quickly my contractions became more intense.  Once we heard from the doctor, and she told us to come in, we threw Bella in the car, our plan to keep her at home fell through since our friends down the street had a sick little boy, and headed off to the hospital, meeting my mom and Drew's parents there.  Bella was as cute as could be riding in the car saying things like, "Wow, look at all these people who are awake, don't they know they are suppose to be asleep?"  Her antics made the process of dealing with the contractions a lot easier--she was a perfectly, joyful distraction.

By the time we arrived at the hospital at 9:35pm, my contractions were 1 minute in length and then 1 minute apart, and VERY intense.  Drew rolled me into triage, and after an exam we discovered I was 7cm, 100%!  I was super excited, but also somewhat dazed because everything was happening so quickly and I had truly never seen hospital workers move so quickly.  Since we felt things would go rather quickly, we told the grandparents to hang around with Bella, so she could meet her sister when she made her debut.

After being rushed out of triage and into a labor and delivery room, they were quick to make sure I got my epidural by 10:40, thank goodness, and they broke my water.  Around 11:15 we began the whole pushing process, and by 11:36 our little girl Aubrey Madison had arrived, all 20.5 inches and 8lbs, 12oz of her!  While she may have been a day late in my book, or possibly a little more since I had been anxious for arrival for months, she was right on time according to her standards--and had no problem making sure the labor and delivery was a memorable one!