Well, after at least a month of contractions, she finally came. The night we ended up going into the hospital (the 6th time), we had been doing some dancing to try and get her out. At about 11:00 PM on June 23rd, I started having migraine symptoms. I had a headache, my eyes started hurting and were sensitive to the light, and I had a blind spot in my left eye. When we went into the hospital, the nurse said that I was in labor, and that I was dilated to a 6. Finally we were able to stay. They put me in the delivery room and I was able to sleep a little bit. They gave me some oxytocin to speed up the process, and when I was dilated at a 7, the doctor broke my water. Shortly after my water broke, I was asking for an epidural. I only had about a half hour to an hour of excruciating pain before I got the epidural. After getting the epidural, it was smooth sailing. We were able to sleep once again. Around 9:30 AM on June 24th, the nurse came in and told me it was time to push. The pushing only took about an hour. I ended up needing an episiotomy to better facilitate the delivery. I had the opportunity to watch the process in a mirror. I saw Julia's head starting to emerge, and the next thing I knew, her head was out. They pulled her out and clamped the umbilical cord. Jason was able to cut the umbilical cord. Then they got her cleaned up and handed her to me. I've seen cute babies before, but I have developed a bias toward my own. There can be no baby that is cuter than my Julia. The rest of the day was filled with people coming to visit. Our bishop stopped by for a few minutes as well as some of our friends and my family. It was nice of them to stop by. That night, we had a little bit of a scare. I woke up and saw that Julia looked purple. She had just spit up and started choking. I called for help from a nurse, and the nurse came in and took her to get her airways cleared. Apparently she had some amniotic fluid in her system that they had to remove. But everything turned out ok. She passed her hearing test and got the shots she needed. Around 6:00 or 6:30 PM on June 25th, we were able to leave. My sister came up and helped out for a few days, then my other sister helped out for the rest of the week. It was great having some extra help around the house. We also received a lot of help from friends with meals. We are now getting back into the groove of things and adjusting to being parents. So far so good. Julia is adorable, and I look forward to the years to come.
