Maricela's Birth Story

Here's a scrapbook page I did, documenting what happened the day Maricela was born.

**For some reason, it's not letting me load the picture. I'll try again later.**

Here is the journaling:
The alarm went off at 7:00 am. I got up, took a shower, and got ready to go. Dad woke up and he got ready as well. When we were ready to go, we woke up the girls to say good-bye to them before we left for the doctor’s office. When we arrived at the doctor’s office, I was a little nervous that Dr. Liddle would say that I wasn’t dilated enough to have you. We waited for a long time to be checked - it was 9:00 am when we got there, and he didn’t get to me until about 9:40 am. So I had a lot of time to worry. But when he checked me, he said that I was dilated to a 4 and ready to go. He sent us over to the hospital and said that he would be over later to break my water.
We drove straight over to the hospital to check in. They sent us to our room and told me the nurse would be in soon. I changed into my gown and we waited. The nurse put my IV in at 10:30 am. We had to wait an hour before I could get my epidural. When the anesthesiologist arrived, Dad wasn’t there. He had gone to the car to get our cameras so that we would be ready. I didn’t want to get the epidural until he came back, so they had to page him to come to the room. We were waiting for a long time before he got there. He had gone to the wrong floor! Once he got there, they put in my epidural and everything was fine. It was now 11:30 am.
Dad and I watched some tv and basically just realxed in the hospital room. Dr. Liddle finally got to the hospital at 1:30 pm. Dad wasn’t there (he had gone to get some lunch) but he went ahead and broke my water to get things going. At that point, I was dilated to a 6. When Dad came back, I told him that my water was broken and it wouldn’t be long now. He didn’t believe me. He thought that he hadn’t been gone for that long, and was surprised that I’d done that without him there. But I was ready to get you here!
Dr. Liddle waited around in our room because he knew that it would go fast after that. Sure enough, about 45 minutes later, I started feeling my contractions a little bit. They checked me and I was at a 10. Dr. Liddle and the nurse quickly got everything ready to deliver you. Once they had everything in place, they told me to push. I only had to push 4 times to get you out! You were born at 2:33 pm. You weighed 6 lb 13 oz and were 18 1/2 in long. Just a teeny little baby.
We were so excited to see you. And you looked perfect and so beautiful right from the start. The nurse let me hold you for about a minute, then took you over to clean you up. While she was checking you to make sure everything was okay, she said that you were having a hard time keeping your oxygen levels up and that she’d need to take you over to the nursery so they could moniter you. She let me hold you for another few minutes before she took you, but I had to keep an oxygen mask next to your little mouth. Then she and Daddy left with you to go to the nursery. I didn’t get to see you for another 2 hours. But when they brought you back, they said that everything was fine and there was nothing to worry about. What a wonderful blessing you are to our family. We’re so glad to have you here with us and that you are a part of our family, Maricela. We love you so much.