Miriam Elizabeth Johnson

Well, she's here! It all started Sunday night (her due date) around midnight. I was having some contractions, but I was able to sleep just fine. They woke me up around 6 on Monday morning, though. I told Mike I thought I was probably starting to go into labor, but that I wasn't near enough needing to go to the hospital. So he went to work, but then by the time he got home, I thought I was pretty much ready to go to the hospital. So we went, but I was only at a 1.5 and didn't make any progress in an hour, so they sent me home. They did give me some percocet, which made me throw up. I don't like prescription pain killers.
I didn't sleep much that night, and Mike took the next morning off work so he could go with me to my 40 week doctor's appointment. I was feeling pretty discouraged and the contractions were getting really painful, so it was pretty encouraging when the doctor said that I was at a 3 and 70% effaced. Mike took me to my parents' house and went to work and then picked me up on his way home. I was almost crying with every contraction at that point and just wanted to take a bath. The bath didn't really help, and after that and about halfway through Ratatouille, I told Mike I just wanted to go to the hospital. He was timing my contractions and they were about 4 minutes apart, so we decided to give it another try. We went, I was at a 4 and almost to a 5 within the hour, so they kept me.
I got my epidural about an hour and a half later. I was still undecided on our way to the hospital about whether or not I wanted one, but just a few contractions after the nurse said they were keeping me, I became very sure that an epidural would be awesome. It was a weird sensation, but I really liked it. It was so nice to be able to relax and not worry about the next wave of pain. After that, it was just a matter of waiting to get to a 10. Mike and I watched 2 Weeks Notice (the first movie we went to together) and then he fell asleep. I got some rest, but kept waking up every time the baby's heart monitor slowed at all. I got stuck at a 7 for a little bit, so they put me on a really low pitocin drip, but then took me off of it about 5 minutes later, when my contractions started getting huge. It was probably only a half hour later that I was at a 10. I woke Mike up and he was really cute and sleepy, but after he found out that I was going to start pushing, he woke up pretty quick. I only had to push for about 45 or 50 minutes and I don't think they were expecting things to go so fast, because then I had to stop pushing for 3 or 4 contractions while they got the doctor. That was the hardest part, by far.
The doctor got there and Miriam got there right after. She weighed 8lbs 2oz, was 21 inches long, and was born 5:39AM on April 1st. I consider it her own little April Fool's joke on me and Mike that I went into labor at midnight on my due date and then waited until the first to get here.
They were a little bit worried about how she was breathing, so they took her down to the nursery to make sure everything was ok. Mike went with her and I was glad I wasn't there because they had to hook her up to little monitors and put in an IV. By the time I got down to the mother baby floor, she was only in the nursery for another 45 minutes before they were satisfied that everything was ok. My parents were there and got to hold her before they had to go.
The hospital was ok, but I was definitely ready to go by Friday. I really loved all my nurses. I knew my labor and delivery nurse and my first mother baby nurse, so that was really fun. Getting home was really nice- I felt like we'd been away a lot longer than we were. Since then, I've just been adjusting to being a mom and not sleeping at night (or ever, it feels like sometimes). My mom's been great and has been coming over during the day to keep me company and help me out with whatever needs doing- I don't know what I would do without her. Mike, too. He's such a great daddy. Mim goes to sleep a lot better for him than for me, I think. I'm so glad we live so close to so much family- they've all been a wonderful support. My mother in law has arranged meals for us and done our laundry since we got back. Thanks to all the family that has contributed meals or time- I appreciate it so much.