So this is how it all went down...

not that you want to know but lets be honest...1. when Charley is 13 my ultimate goal is going to be to embarrass the snot out of her and what better way than to publish her birth story on the World Wide Web!!! and 2. us women have a tendency to forget details so please excuse the "oversharing", as I attempt to help myself remember for years to come!:):)

Around 5 AM on Monday I begin having contractions that were constantly 5 to 6 minutes apart and becoming more intense. I could still walk through them easily but they were definitely different than my braxton hicks and I officially told Chris when he woke that it was game time! I had an appointment with Dr. Martin at 9:15 so we waited for Sam to wake up, packed everything we would need, and spent some last minute time with Sam before dropping him off at the Dowdy's! On the way to the appointment the contractions were increasing in pain but I was still laughing and giving them the ol' 3 out of 10 on the contraction scale! Dr. Martin was running a little late due to the Sowers' C-section :), and I finally got checked around 10! She confirmed that I was in active labor and already at 5 cm, and this time when the nurse said I was having a baby today...she meant it!! Whoo-Hoo!! She told us to head on over to the hospital but of course Chris's poor stomach was growling so even though I couldn't have breakfast and was salivating at the mouth, my husband made time to go through the Chick-fil-a drive through!!! Don't worried I documented it on the video camera! We arrived at the hospital and checked in and apparently there must have been a full moon because the labor and delivery floor was PACKED!! They ended up putting us in one of the rooms they usually reserve to prep for C-sections...ironically the SAME room that Nikki and Craig were in just hours earlier...seriously people I couldn't even make this up! The nurse asked if I was planning on getting an epidural, and of course I responded...DUH! She said now was probably a good time to go ahead and get it and she put the order in. We waited an hour and no epidural...she came in a told us that the anesthesiologist had an emergency c-section and would be in shortly and gave some little slice of heaven that in her words "knocked the edge of the contractions"! I thought I was being a wimp but it turns out I had turned the corner and was in the last stage of labor the only problem being that my anesthesiologist and doctor were in the emergency C-section and nobody had checked me since my doctor's visit. The "epidural man" finally came in around 3:30 and I got my epidural. About 10 minutes later "Lightening McQueen", aka the Physicians to Women doctor on call, arrived and low and behold I was 10 cm, right after that my water broke on its own, and the doctor told us he would be back in 40 minutes. The nurse (who we all know really do all the work) let me push 3 times, told me it was time for the doctor to come back in, I pushed two more times and Charley was born at 5:13!!

Thank you to everyone who was praying for us!!! We are so blessed to now be a family of four!! I will update soon about our first week...I promise to include pics!!