~The Experience We Call Life~: Welcome, our lovely Grace

Around 3 am or so, Sunday, Sept 12th, 2010, I began to feel contractions that were 5 minutes apart. I didn't want to go to the hospital so early, knowing that I could have those contractions for long while before anything would happen. Around 7:30, I woke Kevin up & he called his lovely mother, Ruth, to come watch Marley (as she was still asleep) while we made the trip to the hospsital.

We arrived at the hospital around 8:30 & did the usual check-in thing between contractions. These were uncomfortable, but tolerable. After the triage nurse finished her assessment, she told me I was dialted to a 6! Yay! That means the baby will be coming soon, right? The triage nurse thought so. I wanted to attempt this delivery without any medication. I received an epidrual with Marley & was so numb that I couldn't feel when I should push with Marley. I pushed for an excruciating two hours straight with her! I finally gave up & thought, there is no way I can continue to do this...they've got to get this kid out of me doing something else (fortunately, she came about 10 minutes later!) I did NOT want to go through that again! I figured no medication would make pushing this baby out much easier.

We got set up in the room & I thought, I can do this without meds! The physcian on-call came in & said that she would be in with a C-Section & that I would probably deliver before she got done, but she would alert one of her collegues about my status! She also instructed the nurse to set up the delivery tray so it'd be ready since the baby would definately come soon. Wonderful, I thought! The sooner the baby could be delivered the better...well, such was not the case! The physcian finished her C-Section & nothing had progressed with me. She checked me around 1:30 pm and I was dialated to (drum rolls please...) a 7! A 7! Was she kidding me or pulling my leg? Four hours of laboring in the hospital & I had only progressed to a stinking 7?!

When the nurse asked me if there was anything she could do for me, I ask if she could get this baby delivered ASAP! She said that she'd get the MD & break my water & that should get it started. I mean since she'd seen second deliveries deliver within 20 minutes to an hours after breaking the bag of waters, I thought, alright I'm in the clear. I can still do this without medication!

So my water was broken & the contractions definetly became more intense but still, I thought, I can do it! I just need to breathe through them! Then 3:30pm rolls around, with intense contractions & the MD checked me & I was only "just over a 7"! For real?! I mean seriously, what's my problem? Everyone was so dead set that I would deliver this little girl HOURS ago...maybe that's what jinxed it.

Finally, I'm like enough is enough! I just did not want to continue to labor for hours & hours with no progression without medication! So I gave in & had an epideral. That must have been the magic trick because I literally was able to push our second daughter out in a few pushes 20 minutes later! The physcian said that maybe the epideral made me relax enough for her to come out! Hallelujah!!! Our sweet baby girl was born at 4:35 pm! She was 6 pounds & 15 ounces & 20 inches long!

It was wonderful she was her...but what were we going to name her? We really hadn't settled on any name, even after long discussions with family members, friends, while reviewing name book after name book. Why was this child so hard to name? The hospital staff members a Nazi Name Police as every single person asked us what this child's name would & threatened that we better have the yellow name form filled out before we left! FINALLY, during the last day of our hospital stay, the pressure was on & we named her: Grace Clara Cooke. I still wasn't totally sold on the name & for days after, had a hard time calling her Grace. But what else was I going to call her? I certainly wasn't going to go down to the Social Security office to change her name & as if I had a name to change it too! So Grace it is!!

I forgot how little babies are! Our second daughter was 5 ounces bigger than Marley & she still seemed so tiny! Even though I haven't gotten much sleep, it is so fun to have a brand-new baby in the house!

Marley is taking her big sister role very seriously! She's so into helping out by changing her diaper or giving her her binkie. We love our newest addition!