The experience from Crystal!
Birth
•Not sleeping the night before filled with excitement and anxiety of the unknown.
•Getting up and getting ready to go to the hospital feeling crampy-plot twist wasn't cramps!
•Got breakfast sandwiches at kwik trip.
•Around 7am getting settled in the room and taking out the dilapan rods-WOW THEY'RE BIG! HOW DID THEY FIT?
•6cm dilated to start! Yay!! But also cervical checks HURT!
•IV start- 2 tries which is typical. I tried to convince the new grad to start it but she was too scared.
•No more glucose checks for mama! Yay!!!
•Still contracting but it only feels like a bad period, still very manageable for pain.
•Pitocin started, Jenni arrives and gets me up to walk-Bluetooth monitor so cool!
•Walk the 200 hall and OB steeping side to side and squatting during contractions.
•Allie shows up before work-but eventually calls in she really didn’t want to miss this!
•Back to the room to bounce on the ball-Jenni tried to get me to do the TikTok dance.
•Periodically upping pitocin.. yep I’m feeling it now!
•We think baby is sunny side up so we try to get her to flip-hands and knees! I called myself a cow.
•Stayed in hands and knees until my legs started to fall asleep, then peanut ball. This is when the contractions got REAL!
•Try to breath through the contractions, squeezing the bed railing, then at one point Jenni gave me my slipper to grip. Deep low moaning, anything my body felt like it had to do to overcome the pain Moana playing in the background which surprisingly enough was the best distraction I had during contractions-remember that for next time! 
•Started to feel myself breaking from the pain-it’s almost time for an epidural.
•Heard the nurses in the hallway getting things set up thinking I’m almost there and it’s almost baby time, don’t quit now you made it this far, you can do this!
•Emily comes to check me and tells me I’m only at a 7 maybe 7 1/2 “are you kidding me!?”
•Contractions continue to intensify I finally break and call for an epidural around 2pm.
•My perception of time was way off, I thought I only toughened out an hour of bad contractions, David said it was closer to 4 hours. (About half my labor)
•Anesthesia shows up, does an intrathecal to give instant relief then the epidural. Intrathecal worked great, I could still feel contractions but it was more like the morning-bad period cramps but very tolerable especially after what I just went through.
•Anesthesia had a really hard time getting the wire to thread tried multiple time OW!
•Finally got it in and I was numb from the waist down-sweet sweet relief.
•Sent David Julie and Allie to get some lunch we still have a long road ahead of us and I wanted to nap anyway.
•About an hour later 245ish Emily comes in to check me again (finally a cervical check that didn’t send me through the bed) 91/2! Wait what!?
•Nurses come in to cath me, Emily checks again were at a 10! Bladder was in the way Ready to start pushing!
•Can we wait till David comes back? Text him and they are almost back to the hospital.
•Julie casually strolling in and I say “ready to have a baby?” “Yep!” She looked around “right now!?” “Yes right now!
•David and Allie come in shortly behind and realize right away it’s go time.
•Nurse Shelby on my left and nurse Kayla on my right David up by my head Julie and Allie down by Emily to watch her be born.
•Emily giving me instructions on how to push but my adrenaline kicked into over drive and I kind of blacked out.
•Start pushing trying to follow instructions, I feel like she’s got to be crowning by now so I ask how we’re doing Emily says “we might have a baby by 4” it was 3:00 “an hour of pushing, are you kidding!?” Pushing is probably one of the most exhausting things I have ever done especially with hardly sleeping in 24 hours no way was I going to be able to keep that up for an hour!
•I pushed and pushed and pushed with everything I had. All I could hear in my head was Emily “if you’re going to push, push” from a birth I got to watch once and that’s what she said to the laboring mother.
•Emily grabbed my hand when she was crowning to make me feel her head.
•If you want this baby you have to get serious and put your all into these pushes-and that’s what I did. About 20 minutes start to finish she was here.
•Tears streamed down my face, Emily and the nurses wiped her down but I just wanted her in my arms, I didn’t care about the goop.
•Minor tear that needed stitches but I didn’t care at all.
•She was absolutely perfect!
•The feeling I felt can’t even be put into words. That was easily the happiest moment of my whole life and I’m not sure if anything will even come close to it.
•About 45/50 minutes later David asked “okay I’m just going to come out and ask, when do I get to hold her?” So I handed her over and from that moment on she’s been completely wrapped around her daddy’s finger.