The Hospital Run Down

5:30 pm - Arrive at the hospital and get admitted

6:00 pm - Meet our first nurse (we've been through quite a few), who knows one of the Smiley cousins

6:10pm - Get hooked up to the monitors that track the baby's heart rate and the frequency of contractions. Lynne discovers that she had been having contractions already for at least a couple days, but she didn't realize it at the time.

6:30pm - Nurses administer cervidil. The original plan was to administer this drug, which would, over a 12 hour period, "soften" Lynne up to be induced on Monday morning with pitocin, a much stronger drug that would significantly kick start things and bring on strong labor.

7:30pm - Sara and Jerry visit and Lynne's contractions really strengthen.

9:00pm - Sara and Jerry leave.

9:30pm - Contractions become incredibly painful, occurring every 60-90 seconds, with no relief even between contractions.

10:45pm - After braving what we learned was "significant labor" for 75 minutes, and being brought to tears during a "progress check," one dose of Nubain was administered to reduce the pain. At the time, Lynne was disappointed, believing since we were so early in the game (and at this point, we had no idea the future time frame for labor/delivery) she was "wussing out," but our excellent nurse (one of many Purdue grads serving us during our stay) was surprised she lasted as long as she did since the contractions were pretty severe.

11:30pm - After the Nubain dose wore off, and still no certainty that labor wouldn't last until late Monday afternoon, Lynne received an epidural, much to Kirk and the nurse's agreement. She was planning to have one at some point, and it just made sense to get it done early before the intense pain returned (which would make it difficult to adminster the epidural).

12:00am - The epidural kicks in and allows Lynne to feel better and have a little bit of sleep through the night. Contractions continued about every minute thrugh the night, which was very suprising to the nursing team.

4:00am - It is evident now that labor is happening very well on its own and there will be no need for pitocin! We were both pretty happy since we weren't a fan of that drug. The baby was ready to come on her own, which was wonderful to hear!

7:45am - The nurses give notice that in possibly an hour it will be time to start pushing. Pushing could last anywhere from 1 hour to 2, they think. We have a Purdue nursing student shadowing our nurse, whose sibling I knew at Purdue, and the staff continue to tell her that this is not normal. Lynne is an all-star, and getting to those point without pitocin is very uncommon, and her labor is progressing better than most. We enjoy hearing that!

8:45am - The doc has Lynne wait another hour before pushing to give the baby a chance to move a little further down. Parents are called and told to head to the hospital.

9:45am - Parents arrive and patiently kill time in the waiting room. It's time to push!

10:30am - Lynne is an all-star pusher, even with an epidural (which makes it harder to push since you can't feel yourself below the waist. Again, the nurses have to tell the Purdue student that this is not normal, so don't always expect it this easy. Lynne does about 90-120 minutes worth of pushing in 45 minutes. Kirk helps the nurses and watches this miracle happen.

10:31am - Eliza Kathryn Smiley is born! Lynne had no pain, Kirk triumphantly cuts the cord, and the doc takes care of Lynne while Kirk takes hundreds of pics and video of the baby being cleaned up. She weighs in at 6 lbs. 13 oz. Lynne was relieved since the doc thought she weighed 7 lbs. two weeks ago, and we were worried about a big baby. She measures 19.5 inches and rocks her APGAR tests :)