I can't believe we got to meet our baby 2 whole weeks early! I woke up on Sunday morning, July 28th, to find that my water had broken, which put us on a 24 hour timeline because there is a risk of infection if the baby isn't born within 24 hours of the water breaking. Tim and I headed to the hospital around 1:00. Active labor never kicked in for me, so they had to induce around 3:30pm. I knew that if I was induced that I would likely get the epidural in the end, because contractions under induction are far stronger and faster than natural contractions. Plus, the drug they give to induce is given continuously via IV, and I have to be hooked up to monitors to watch the baby's heart beat and make sure he's handling the contractions well. This meant that my water birth was out of the question. So I made it about 6 hours without any pain killers, but once the contractions got to be too much I decided to go for the epidural. It was better than I thought it would be! I could still feel and move my legs, I just couldn't feel any pain. This meant that Tim and I were able to sleep through the night and we were woken around 5:30am because it was time to push. After a little less than an hour pushing, our sweet William was born! He is our pride and joy - we were instantly in love.
