Not that it mattered but because everyone (even strangers) told me I was going to have a boy because the shape of my belly, we finally decided on Ethan Kale for his name. SHE arrived on April 25 at 7:13 pm, two days late, so her father decided to name her Kaley (I changed the spelling) and I chose Lauren. She weighed 6lbs,6oz. Here is my story...

My due date came, my friends called but I knew that I wouldn't be giving birth on that day. In fact I had wanted to wait until the following Monday so that I could work on the weekend. I do freelance work and there was an assignment that weekend, I thought it might be nice to pick up some extra money since I stopped working for the longest time due to my pregnancy. Anyway so on Friday the 24th I spoke to my boss and told him that I'd like to work on the weekend and that I was almost certain I wasn't going to give birth anytime soon. I had absolutely no signs that labour was on it's way. That evening I was lying in bed reading a book when I heard and felt a loud POP ! I knew it was my mucus plug but it left me in a bit of pain so I waited a bit before going to the washroom to check. When I got up there was some fluid leaking so I started getting all excited thinking my water broke as well. It was only the snotty discharge I've been reading everyone getting within the month of April. Knowing that losing your plug doesn't neccesarily mean labour depressed me a bit. Soon after I had my first contraction. I still wasn't sure if it was a real contraction. It certainly hurt, but not too much. This all happened about 7:30 in the evening. By midnight the contractions were coming every ten minutes but I could still handle it. My MIL insisted that I go to the hospital. She kept saying that once my contractions started I would give birth real soon and might not make it to the hospital if I didn't leave now. I knew that they would send me home but I had to go anyway. I was 1cm dilated, 75% effaced and they sent me home to get some sleep. An hour after I got home the contractions were coming every 4-5 minutes and I could not take it any longer. I called my BF to come home from work to drive me to the hospital. I was only 1.5 cm dilated when I got there so they couldn't give me anything for the pain. I layed there in pain for four or five hours, I wasn't sure. The deep breathing helped a bit. I think it might have been six am when they finally said I could have some Demerol. They stuck a huge need into my hip (I didn't know that's how it was administered) and boy did I scream with pain. Almost instantly I became very sleepy and I told my BF to come back in the morning. The doctors woke me up around 8 or 9 am to check me - only 3 cm dilated. Since I was awake I asked for an epidural. The Demerol made me really drowsy but didn't help the pain much. The epidural was heaven, I couldn't even feel the catheter going in because I was so groggy from the Demerol. The rest of the day was drifting in and out of sleep. I cannot stress how heavenly the epidural felt. So much for natural birth. I wanted to hold out for as long as I could stand it. I was finally fully dilated that evening around 6:30pm. They took me off of the epidural and then I started pushing. That was such a killer. What a seen too! My mother was holding one leg, my MIL holding the other and my BF holding my hand. I pushed for 45 min and Kayley finally came out.

I know this is long but I just had to retell the story. Although I'm extremely tired everyday I don't mind one bit. I fell in love with her the moment she was in my arm and she changes everyday. She is really my bundle of joy.