Gwyneth's Birth

I guess I will start with Gwyneth's birth story since she is my inspiration for starting a blog.  I had a very uneventful pregnancy, everything was wonderful, actually I loved being pregnant.  I felt great and was just in a fabulous mood all the time, I think the hormones had the opposite effect on me for some reason.  Anyway, at my 37 week appointment my blood pressure was up some and my doctor wanted to me to do a test to make sure I wasn't getting toxemia.  (My mom had that with my brother.)  At my 38 week appointment she determined that I was okay, but told me to take it easy.  I was only slightly effaced and not at all dilated.  I went back to work for the rest of the day and then at home that evening I started leaking.  I wasn't sure that my water had broke and I didn't want to upset Eric so I read up about it in all my pregnancy books and then decided to lay down and rest.  At about 11:00PM I woke up on the couch and was wet, when I stood up, the fluid gushed.  Eric was still in the office working so I called to him from the bathroom, "Umm...Honey, I think my water just broke..."  He comes bursting out of the office and started packing my bag, while I put on make up and fixed my hair.   Since I wasn't having any painful contractions I didn't see any need to rush. :)  I was just not mentally prepared for this, I thought I still had at least 2 more weeks.  It wasn't even the right month, I was supposed to have an August baby and it was still July!  As we were ready to walk out the door, I stopped and said, "Let's sit down for a minute." haha.  So Eric appeased me and we sat on the couch together for the very last time as a childless couple.  I wanted to cherish our last few moments.  Once we got to the hospital and confirmed that my water broke (as if it weren't obvious)  we called our parents.  It was about 1:00AM, I was put on pitocin at 5AM, got my epidural at 8AM and started pushing at Noon.  My epidural was not very effective, I still had a lot of pain, I was quite shocked, because so many people had told me how they couldn't feel a thing or even move their legs.  NOT SO!  It was all worth it though.  At 1:36PM, our baby girl was born.  I was so thrilled and relieved; I couldn't stop crying as I held her on my chest in those first few moments of her life.