This is what was next...

On Sunday, July 11, Sarah and I had just finished eating a Tombstone pizza and we were relaxing in our living room. I was really tired and had a bit of a headache, so I called it a night at about 9:30. Sarah came to bed shortly after me at about 10.

A few minutes after Sarah got into bed, she said that she could feel something draining and quickly went to the bathroom. I woke up faster than ever and found the information on when to call the doctor. I was certain that leaking fluid was on there somewhere. She was not having any contractions or anything. I called the doctor and she spoke with Sarah, advising us that we should come in and get it checked out. Meanwhile, I'm running around trying to get everything together. We were convinced it was nothing, but thought we should bring everything just in case. I loaded up the car while Sarah straightened her hair.

On the way to the hospital, we said to each other that this "dry run" was definitely good practice for the "real" event. We noted lots things that we would do differently when we were going to deliver.

We went to Triage and checked in. The nurse did a swab on Sarah to test the fluid. A few minutes (seemed like an hour) later, she came back and informed us that Sarah's water had broken and that they were preparing a room for us to stay. They recommended we sleep as much as possible, which is incredibly hard to do when you are anticipating what is going to happen next. I think each of us got less than an hour of sleep.

Around 6am, the nurses administered Pitocin to induce labor. Soon Sarah began to have contractions, and we did our best to stay calm. Sarah wanted an epidural, based on the recommendations of her friends, so we asked when she could have it. They told us that when the pain was too unbearable is when they would typically give it to her. She asked for it around 9am, but the anesthesiologist was with another patient and it would be about an hour and a half. This time flew past for me, I'm not sure about Sarah. Once she had her epidural, she looked like she was much more relaxed. The doctor checked on her status around 12:30pm and said she was complete. The nurse recommended she start pushing. For another 3 hours, Sarah pushed with each contraction. But our baby was not making any progress. The doctor said our baby is doing fine with all of this and there is no reason to rush, except for Sarah is exhausted at this point. The doctor said that we could either use the vacuum extractor to help or we could keep pushing. Sarah is very determined to push the baby out, so the doctor said we would keep pushing for another 30 minutes. If the baby was not making any progress we would use the extraction.

After the 30 minutes had passed, the baby had not budged. The doctor said that she could feel around the baby's head and that forceps might be a better option than the vacuum. We agreed to this, and within a couple of minutes the room was filled with doctors, nurses, and equipment. A few pushes later, and our new baby, Elena Ann, emerged.

Both Sarah and I were immediately in love with our little Elena. She was the cutest baby either of us had ever seen. She weighed in at 6Lbs 6oz and was 18.5" long.

Now our newest adventure has begun.