And suddenly we are four

I never thought I'd join the club of "natural birth mamas." Heck, I never wanted to. I still can't believe I did that. It's pretty incredible, the miracle of birth, how in one split second there is suddenly a new person who wasn't here before being placed in my arms and that I instantly love this tiny person more than I could ever imagine.

My contractions started sometime between midnight and one in the morning on August 1. Having had late night contractions before, I decided to "walk them off" by pacing around the living room in the dark. But this time something was different. My water broke. I was induced for Ellie, so I really had no idea what to expect or what it would be like. It took me a while to realize what had happened (was I just having to pee a lot?), but once I finally figured it out, I woke Paul up, called the doctor, and started to pack my bag as we waited for Paul's parents to arrive. I was pretty calm as we waited and the contractions came closer and harder. As soon as my in-laws arrived, we left for the hospital.
We arrived, checked in (official check-in time was 2:51am), went to our room, and signed a million consent and history forms in between contractions. Labor was progressing quickly, so we rushed through it all to get me my epidural as soon as possible. Finally, the anesthesiologist came in, gave me my meds, and I went from 6cm to 10cm in less than ten minutes. The nurse called Paul back in, I did one practice push, and she asked Paul to push the call button for the doctor to come as she held my legs together and declared "I am NOT delivering this baby!" My doctor never made it. The on-call doctor came in and practically just caught Katie as she came out in one contraction and two pushes at 3:48am, less than an hour after we checked in, and not enough time for the pain medication to kick in. I felt everything except the last two contractions... and I felt every inch of her as she came into the world. And truthfully, as much of a wuss that I am, with my lack of pain tolerance, I can say that it wasn't so bad. Yes, there were truly awful moments, but all in all, it wasn't as terrible as I thought it would be. The worst part, actually, was when the epidural finally did kick in (when I didn't need it!) and I was annoyed because I couldn't feel my legs and had to be wheeled to my postpartum room in my delivery bed. Of course, none of that actually mattered when I held my teeny tiny little person in my arms.

Two weeks later, she is still so small but so precious, and it's still sometimes hard to believe that she is ours and that again, our lives are forever changed by this little miracle.