She's Here!

Lauren Elisabeth Schnick arrived on Sunday, February 24th at 2:14 pm. She weighed 8 lb. 12 oz. and was 21 in. long. I was definitely feeling contractions when I last posted. We ended up going to the hospital at 7:20 am and they were between two and three minutes apart at that time. When we got there, they checked me (I was sure we'd be going home) and I was at 4 cm. So, they kept me. Dr. Wirsing came about an hour later and checked me again. I was at 6 cm. and he broke my water. The contractions were bearable until that point. Holy cow did they hurt after that. He tried to talk me out of an epidural because he thought I'd have trouble pushing. Needless to say, I got an epidural an excruciating hour later and life was great! I was dilated to 10 cm. about two hours later, but the baby was still pretty high. They decided to let her come down on her own. After another few hours, she was still high so they started some pitocen to make my contractions more regular. Another hour went by and she hadn't come down much, so they had me push to try and bring her down. During my first push, the nurse told me to stop and hollered that Dr. Wirsing needs to start putting on his booties now. I was such a good pusher that she was out in about 10 to 15 min.- only two real rounds of pushing. The third time, he had me do one little push and he just guided her out the rest of the way. It was really a pretty easy labor and birth. I felt pretty good and was up shortly after that. We are home now and getting used to life as a family of four. Thanks for all of your well wishes and loving comments! We look forward to sharing Lauren with you all!