Sofia's Birth Story Part II

Towards the end of my pregnancy, one of my coworkers asked me if I had had a relatively easy pregnancy. Why yes, I had! She told me that meant I was in for a difficult labor.  Of course, this is what every pregnant lady wants to hear weeks before giving birth, but I can't say she wasn't wrong. In case you missed it, you an catch up on part one here. 

After deciding it was baby time, I was hooked up to an IV and a nurse came to take me from triage to the delivery room. My nurse was Crystal and she was a SAINT. When we got to the delivery room Crystal asked me a bunch of questions, none of which I remember except for, "Who did you choose as your pediatrician?" and "This is a stupid question, but on a scale of 1-10, how much pain are you in?" Obviously it was clear to Crystal that the answer to that was ELEVEN. 

Because of said pain, Crystal quickly got the anesthesiologist to come in and give me the epidural. How women are able to give birth without an epidural is beyond me. You go girl.
It was around 8PM at this time, I was started on pitocin, and my parents were finally able to come in and visit.
Around 10pm, Crystal came back to check me and I was 5cm dilated. Wooo making moves, people! Between 10pm and 1am there was a lot of attempted napping, ice cube eating, and epidural wearing-offing. Because of the way Sofia was laying (head down, face up) there was one part of my tummy I could still feel tighten every time I had a contraction, and it was getting progressively more painful.
At 1:30am when Crystal checked me, not only was I 10cm but my water had broken. News to me! As I couldn't feel a thing down there.
However, she also noticed I had a fever and the baby's heart rate was elevated. She thought Sofia might have some sort of infection and started me on antibiotics. Although hearing Sofia could have some kind of infection made me nervous, deep down I knew everything was going to be okay.
Now it was time to push. And push. And push. And push.
It's also worth noting that around this time Mad Money was on TV and my mom decided it was "too stressful" to be watching and she got up and quickly changed the channel to something more calming-a slideshow of oceans and beaches with zen music in the background. Sometimes I'll be up feeding Sofia at 3am now and catch part of Mad Money and it will always take me back to this moment. (And I can clearly see why my mother thought it was necessary to change the channel-dude has got a lot of energy!!)
However, I started feeling really discouraged after literally hours of pushing and seemingly no progression. I got to a point where I started to think, "Why isn't anyone suggesting a c-section?!" But Erik, my mom, and Crystal were so supportive and encouraging the entire time.
Then finally, right before 5am, Crystal said it was time to call the doctor in. (The baby was crowning!) She also said several doctors from the NICU were going to come in because Sofia would have to be taken there for a few hours after she was born, due to her possible infection.
I pushed 3-4 more times after the doctor came in and I will never ever forget the moment Sofia came out and they placed her on my belly. I will never forget the way she looked or felt. I looked up at Erik and he was crying, and I looked down at Sofia and thought, this is my baby! 
After they cleaned her up, I got to hold her for a few more minutes before she moved to the NICU.

 Sofia Belle 6lbs. 15 oz., 20.5 inches of perfection. 

Our first family photo.

After spending 6 hours in the NICU, Sofia ended up being just fine! And not to sound like a total cliche but, I would do this all over again ten thousand times if it meant I got to be this girl's mama.
We love you so much, Sofia!!