July 16th, 2004

Well as I'm sure everyone knows by now, Dan and I are parents! Audrey Jean Smeaton was born on July 6th! OMG she's so beautiful. I will have pics up in about a week or so! Um... everyone has been asking me how the labor was, so I'll try and sum it up in a paragraph!

My water broke at 4am on July 6th. It was just so gross! Dan drove me to the hospital, and we immediatly got our own room. As we are getting settled the lady next door to me is screaming at the top of her lungs. I asked the nurse if she had an epidural, and she said no. My contractions started after I got to the hospital, and the progressed in pain rather quickly. I went in the hot tub for a bit to relieve some pressure, but I quickly decided to get an epidural. Well they didnt go so well. I had to get 4 of them until it finally worked. It really didnt hurt that much though. I went to sleep immediatly, so everyone went home but my sister. I was only 2 cm dialated. When I woke up I felt more pressure, and it was determined I was now 9cm dialated and was almost ready to push. I waited till Dan got there to start pushing, which was at 6pm. I pushed for 2 hours and was getting pretty pissed that she wasnt born yet. So the doctor gave me the option to use forceps. I decided to and she was born 15 minutes later at exactly 8:15pm. They laid her on my chest and I was just in love. So would I do it again??? Maybe in 8 years, and thats no lie.

So she's 10 days old now. Its been good so far. She's not on a schedule yet, but thats ok. She sleeps more during the day than at night, but I wont complain cuz shes so freakin cute that I let it slide by. Dan is so amazing with her. He's already back to working full time. We really need the money, but it sucks. She feeds around every 3 hours, so my boobs never get a rest, haha. Alright well I just wanted to update. TTYL