And for any of you ladies who are afraid of pregnancy or labor/delivery, I was n* during pregnancy (no v*) and during labor/delivery I had no n* or v*!! It can be done!
Birth story below...
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Dominick Vincent was born Feb. 5, 2010, at 9:56pm...7 pounds, 5 oz. I was 39 weeks, 2 days pregnant.
So on February 5th, I woke up late, about noon, and had a little breakfast...nothing new. Well at about 1:30pm, I started feeling a contraction but this one was 'different' from the BH contractions I had experienced over & over for weeks. There was a little cramping in my lower region and I felt like I had to go to the bathroom NOW. I thought it was weird but didn't think anything of it since of course there had been so many false alarms before. These contractions continued every 15-20 minutes until about 4pm. Then at about 4:30, they weren't really more painful but getting closer together. It was getting to the point though that I couldn't talk through them easily. By about 6:30pm, they were 4-5 minutes apart, pain was a little worse but very tolerable. DH was the one that told me this really might be something and we should at least get it checked out. Fine....we left for the hospital at about 7:15pm, arriving at about 7:30. We checked in and sat down to wait. At about 7:45pm, I stand up to use the bathroom and Bam, water breaks! This is happening!! So I tell the nurse ummm my water just broke, and thankfully they checked me in right away. I get checked while the pain is getting worse and the nurse tells me I'm already dilated to 7!!! You could've knocked me over, I was so shocked. So I finally walk to the room, stopping to contract every 3 minutes or so.
This is where it got kinda bad (couldn't be all smooth sailing)... I have a curved spine and I've always been a little nervous about the epidural with that. Rightly so...while they make me sit completely still they had to try 3 times before getting it, meanwhile I'm in so much pain that I'm chewing my gown to keep still. It was bad. That probably took like 45 minutes and in that painful 45 minutes, I transitioned and dilated to 10!!!! So the second they got it in, I had to start pushing. I was so worn out. I pushed & pushed for about 20 minutes and unfortunately I got weak so they had to help me with a vacuum and cut me (like 2nd degree) but in one more push he was out!! It all happened so fast! I arrived at the hospital at 7:30pm and he was born at 9:56pm.
Click the link to see a picture of my little guy
http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i1.../Dommietoy.jpg