JORDYN HOPE MILLER

Lauren and Aaron went to the hospital Friday, September 29 at 5:50 am to begin induction. We were checked in and Lauren was hooked up to an IV, and the pitocin was started at 6:30 am. Lauren began getting some contractions, and at 8:30 am the doctor came in and broke Lauren's water. At that point she was still 2 cm dilated and 70% effaced. After her water was broken, the contractions began getting more intense. Around 11 am the contractions were strong enough that Lauren asked for a pain med. They gave her one through her IV to "take the edge off" but all that did was make her very sleepy and dizzy. By then she was 3 cm dilated. She tried to get through some more before asking for the epidural. Unfortunately, the anesthesiologist was on another project and would take "10 minutes" but ended up taking 1 1/2 hours to get to Lauren. By then Lauren was in a lot of pain and ready for the epidural. It took a few tries to get the epidural hooked in but when it was finally done, the pain began to subside instantly. Once the epdidural was in Lauren was checked and was at 8 cm. For the next few hours Lauren just labored in the bed, not feeling any pain which was great. Finally at about 5 pm Lauren was checked and was 10 cm dilated and just had a little bit of cervix on one side. They had her lay on her side for a while which got the rest out of the way. The nurse had her push a few times but Lauren had a lot of trouble because she could not feel very much. So they stopped the epidural and told Lauren at 6pm we would start pushing. Lauren pushed for about an hour. Luckily the doctor was right across the street because once they called the doctor Lauren was having trouble not pushing. At this point the epidural had completely worn off so Lauren could feel everything, and she was not quiet about it! The minute the doctor got in Lauren began really pushing and within minutes the head was out and body soon followed.

The first thing the doctor said was "Lauren, where were you hiding that baby?" She weighed 8 pounds 12 ounces and was 21 inches long. She is beautiful and we are so proud of our peanut.

Aaron was a great coach. He was by Lauren's side the whole time and was very encouraging and comforting. We are just looking forward to getting to know our peanut. Everyone is home now and doing great.