Alana Louise Bansemar's birth story

What a joyous few days! Last Tuesday, October 6, Melissa had her most recent doctor's appointment. The doctor gave us the option to induce on Thursday, October 8th. After little consideration, we chose to go with it. There were no medical reasons that made any of the decisions, the doctor said she was ready as she'll ever be. Fast forward to Thursday morning at 5am. Melissa had the most peaceful night of sleep she had in months. A full 7 hours without waking up at all. Shawn & Melissa checked into the hospital at 6:45 am on Thursday, October 8, 2009. Melissa was still dilated at 3cm. The nurses gave Melissa medication at 8am to start the labor process. The medication surely did start the labor, but Melissa could not feel any of the contractions yet. At 11am, the nurse gave another dose of the medication. That one did it. The contractions were becoming much more intense and closer together. After about an hour of the stronger contractions, Melissa insisted on getting the epidural to help relieve the pain. Doctor said not until I was dilated to 4cm, so we settled on relaxing in the whirlpool bath. This was around 1pm. After about 45 minutes the nurse came in and said that the doctor wanted to break my water at 2pm so it was time to get out of the tub. Afterwards, I would get the drugs. I quickly learned that I had gone from 3cm to 6cm in an hour. The baby's heart rate was dropping and the doctor and nurses were becoming concerned. It did re-stabilize but said the next time it happened we would have to do a cesarean. Shawn was very queasy at this idea, but the heart rate stayed where they would like it and that option seemed to pass. At 6pm, the doctor announced that I was dilated to 10cm and it was time to push. Good thing since her heart rate was dropping again. Shawn stayed well behind Melissa's head so he could be present but not see a thing that he didn't want to. He did a fantastic job and did not pass out or get sick. At 6:05pm, Melissa was pushing away at the directions of her nurses. You see, Melissa did not have any pain at all after the epidural. It was to the point that she did not know when she was having contractions again. At 6:25pm, after only 20 minutes and 30 pushes later, Alana Louise Bansemar was born. She weighed 6 pounds 10 ounces and was 20 1/4 inches long. She is absolutely beautiful. Saturday we were discharged from the hospital and had a difficult first night. Sunday was another day of visitors that wanted to see our beautiful daughter. Last night seemed to operate much smoother as we are slowly adjusting into a routine. We would like to thank everybody for all their warm wishes and thoughts. We are so happy to have great family and friends around us.