Holy Cow!

Lucy Mills has finally arrived. She was born at 1:40 in the afternoon and has been a blessing ever since.

My title, however, is in reference to Lucy's dramatic entrance. I know that there are millions of women who have for years, centuries even, given birth naturally and many have techniques that make the whole experience easier and less painful. I have always deep down wanted to be able to go through labor without giving up and asking for an epidural, just to know how strong I am physically. But never in a million years did I think I could actually do it. It's like running a marathon. I really want to do it just to accomplish something that hard, but I know I'll just wuss out.

In this case, I had no choice. I planned on an epidural. After I was induced at 8 am I waited until about noon and then said I was ready for the epidural. The anesthesiologist had trouble getting the cathidar in correctly so they ended up sticking me in two vertebrae. After I was done I said to Adam, "Well I hope this works otherwise that was totally not worth it." It was really unpleasant to say the least.

And what do you know, IT DIDN'T WORK! Not even a little bit. When I realized that there was no hope for pain relief, I became really scared. I felt completely unprepared and was terrified of what lay in wait for me. They would have given me another one, but I was moving so fast, the nurses said that it was too late to try again. I am very grateful that I did move as quickly as I did. It was extremely painful and I don't know how long I could have lasted. I say that now, but you know, one big lesson I have learned from this is that I can handle a lot more than I think I can.

All in all, it was really a life changing experience. It's kind of cool to be able to say I did it, although I also say I don't think I would really want to do it again. If I had a guarantee that it would go that fast, maybe I would.

She is a sweet baby. Caleb likes to show how soft he can be with her but he also gets jealous of this little thing that steels all the attention. Sometimes he wants to take her away from us and carry her off like she's a toy (which we don't let him do obviously). I am so happy she's here and look forward to learning how to balance two little ones so that all their needs are met.