Faith Has Arrived!

After a night of on-again-off-again labor, we headed to Mary Black Hospital to be induced this morning at 6am. There was an emergency C-section going on when we arrived, so it was an hour before we got bloodwork and IVs. And 8am before they started the pitocin. I was 3cm dialated when they started to induce and 4cm & 70% effaced when they broke my water just after 10am.

When Dr. Bridges broke my water the contractions got incredibly more intense and so I asked for an epidural right away. The anesthesiologist was in another C-section so it took him a while to arrive. After two tries, he got it in and gave me a test dose. I'm not sure if it was the epidural test dose or the intensity of the contractions, but I got extremely hot and nauseous and was miserable. Worse, the test dose barely lightened the intensity of the contractions, and did nothing for the pressure. He left the room and assured us his nurse would be in to administer the real stuff.

An hour later, I'm more than miserable. The regular nurse gave me something for the nausea, but it made me really really tired. And I started to see double. In fact, I think I dozed off a few times when the anesthesiologist's nurse arrived - only to be re-awakened by an intense contraction 1-2 minutes later.

When the anethesiologist's nurse arrived, I was 5cm. He gave me the "real stuff" and told me it would take 3 contractions to start working - and probably wouldn't do a whole lot for the pressure I'd feel at 9-10cm. Well... In those few short moments, while he waited to see if the epidural was working, I became fully dialated and was needing to push. Yeah, THAT FAST!

The nurses & techs rushed in. They worried the doctor wouldn't make it in time. They said they could see the head and I was amazed that in a matter of 10 minutes, I'd gone from 5cm to 10cm and become fully effaced! Not to mention in major pain and frustration I had since all the epidural was doing at that point was numbing my right heel!

Thankfully I only had to push 3-4 times and Faith was out! And by then the epidural had started to work just enough to make it bearable - and by the time I got stitches, I couldn't feel a thing. Immediately afterwards, I felt great! Just the opposite of my experience with Nathan. I know a lot of it had to do with the epidural kicking in late, and never getting fully strong enough to make my legs heavy and hard to move. I was so thankful she was ok - and so grateful for a wonderful doctor and the fact that I felt so good. I thanked God as I watched Faith get cleaned up and Jacob beam with love at his little daughter.

Faith Helen Wuenschel was born at 12:28pm. She weighs 7lb, 5oz and is 19.5 inches long. That's almost 2 inches shorter than Nathan was, and almost 1 1/2 lb lighter, despite having gone 1 1/2 weeks longer in the pregnancy.

And she's perfect. Literally. Her apgar test scores (newborn vital tests) were 9 & 10. They said few babies get perfect 10s!

After a quick clean-up, she nursed like a pro and then headed off to Daddy to fall asleep in his arms. I think she already has her daddy wrapped around her little fingers!


Daddy cut the cord!


Then they handed her to mommy.


The scale was set to grams. She's actually 7lb, 5oz.


Our perfect blessing from God!


With Dr. Bridges


And with mommy!


Then with daddy! Thank You, Lord, for answered prayers!