The story of Grace

Last Tuesday, I went to the doctor for my 39 week check up. I expressed concern that because Gabe was a big baby (8lbs 7oz) that this one would be even bigger. Eventually I talked them into doing an ultrasound and, lo and behold, she was measuring at 9lbs. I knew from experience she was probably not that big (they told me Gabe would be 10 lbs), but even still I knew she was at least 8lbs with more than a week to go. The doctor told me to pick a day for induction. Since Christmas was 2 days away, we decided on Saturday for the big day. They had us come in Friday night, which ended up being pretty lame since they didn't do anything but monitor me. The doctor didn't want to come in to deliver a baby in the middle of the night, and since I was already having mild contractions, they didn't give me anything to get things started.
Here we are dropping off Gabe at some friends' house. I was more nervous about him than the delivery, to be honest. It's hard to explain to a 3 year old what's happening and when we'll be back! After we dropped him off, we really wanted one last spicy thai dinner. Then, in the hospital the next morning, they got me going around 6:30am. My water broke on it's own at 9:30, and at that point I was at a 3. The midwife suggested I get the epidural since I was progressing quickly. By the time they got that in, I was pretty much feeling it and was grateful for the relief. For some reason, though, the relief didn't last long! The epidural didn't totally take and I was feeling much more than I wanted to. Around noon, I told Erik to get some lunch and bring it back to the room. He was back in 10 minutes, but that's all it took for the baby to be ready! 25 minutes later, she was born.