Grace's birth story

Grace Elizabeth Wallace 10 lbs | 21 1/4 inches long born on 1/7/16 at 12:25 pm

On Monday January 4th, my due date- the day we'd been looking forward to for so long, I went into my 40 week appointment. Still only 1cm dilated for the 3rd week in a row, and no sign of Grace coming on her own anytime soon. Dr. Groves and I decided to be induced on 1/7. I would have waited longer to let her come on her own rather than to be induced, and honestly hated the thought of being induced, but with 3 ultrasounds having her measuring in the 90th percentiles, I wanted to reduce my chance of having to have a c-section because of her size. Dr. Groves scheduled me to admit at the hospital at 12 pm on 1/6, start cytotec to help me to dilate at 2pm, then we'd start the pictocin to induce me at 3am on 1/7.  On Wednesday morning my mom and my sister drove in town. They came with Larry and I to ihop to have my "last meal" as we were calling it since I wouldn't be able to eat anything after checking into the hospital. My last bump picture! At noon we checked into the hospital and things were pretty low key. That night, Larry and I fell asleep to watching Nurse Jackie on Netflix on my laptop. I couldn't really sleep well in the hospital bed with an IV,but I tried. At 3 am the nurse came in and started the Pictocin. I started feeling contractions not long after that. At 4:30am Larry was laying in the hospital bed with me when my water broke. I remember telling him "ummm you may want to get up, I think my water broke." He quickly jumped out and then I felt the gush of water... "Yepp it definitely broke!" Larry called both our moms to let them know to make their way back to the hospital. I shed a few tears because it was finally real we were so so close to meeting Grace.

One pro to getting induced- hair and makeup done!

 I remember contractions starting to get bad not long after that. They weren't bad enough to ask for an epidural yet though so I requested some pain meds. I don't remember what they gave me but if definitely helped... It also made me hallucinate! Lol! Everyone thought I was sleeping but I could hear everything they were saying and in my mind I was seeing cartoons. Imagine the scene in Dumbo where Dumbo gets drunk. That's what my mind looked like.

 When the pain meds wore off, contractions became extremely painful. I had quite a few people in the room at that point and I had to ask them all to leave (except Larry of course). It was time for the epidural.

The anesthesiologist came in to administer it and it really didn't hurt at all. I barely felt it to be honest. After all of the shots I had to receive for IVF, I have a very high tolerance for needles I suppose. After that, it was smooth sailing. I barely felt anything, and time seemed to pass by pretty quickly.

 At 11, the nurse came in to check me and I was 7cm dilated. She came back right before noon, and she said we were ready! She had me do some practice pushes then called Dr. Groves in. While waiting on him, she had me do a few more practice pushes. She then said, "well, she's got dark hair!" Everyone's face in the room was shocked! Larry and I's hair is both darker now, but we were both blonde babies!

 Dr. Groves seemed to take his time getting his gloves on and what not, I was scared she's end up falling out!! As I started pushing, I couldn't help but to smile. My dream was coming true. I was finally going to be a mommy! One of the nurses must have thought I was trying to smile for pictures because she told me "you don't have to smile!"

 At 12:25 my baby girl was born and placed on my chest. It was a moment of pure bliss! She was the most beautiful thingI've ever seen!