Andie Emily Schramm was born 7/11/14 at 9:28 pm at 7 lb 6 oz.
That morning I was to be induced at 7:30 am. I started feeling funny the evening before and feeling contractions. I went to bed anyway and started timing them all night and they were about 4-5 minutes apart. I woke up Calvin at about 4:30 and let him know that I think we should go to the hospital. The contractions weren't terrible but they were a lot different from what I had been feeling. We got there about 5:00 am and went to the triage room. I was having contractions at 5 minutes apart and was at a 3. I found out that if I hadn't been in labor on my own that they were going to send me home because they didn't have room for me in the hospital that day to induce. This is after they postponed already. It was so annoying, but a definite blessing and answer to prayer that I was able to do it on my own. .
They checked me about 2 hours later and I was at a 5. Another hour went by and I was still at a 5 so they gave me the epidural and put me on some pitocin. I felt some back labor pressures, but the epidural for the most part worked great. When the pitocin kicked in it was about 2:00 pm when I was at a 9. Instead of wanting me to start pushing soon they wanted me to wait so she could 'labor down' herself. This was pretty weird to me. It was a couple hours before they checked me again and I was fully effaced and dilated to a 10. They still wanted me to wait (this is because I'm pretty sure they were so busy). It wasn't until 9 pm where the nurse on rotation said that we were going to start pushing. Calvin was right by my side the whole time. My mom was able to be there as well taking pictures. I could feel the epidural fading so I asked the nurse if I could push the button again and she said that I shouldn't so I could better feel when to push. I totally wished I pushed that button! It wasn't too bad-- about 20 minutes later Andie was placed on my chest by Calvin. She screamed within the first couple seconds. She was beautiful. She came out with the hugest cone head we ever saw but it only took a couple hours for it to go back to normal. I got a couple stitches--nothing horrible-- but since the epidural wore off it was one of the most painful parts!
The whole experience was so intense. So much emotion and happiness. Our lives changed forever and this new little girl has added so much to our marriage and now to our new little family. Calvin is so great at being a dad. He loves that little girl and changed every single diaper in the hospital. After she was born I was pretty out of it. When Calv was face timing the families I was on the hospital bed pretty much asleep and still in pain. What a beautiful and sacred experience for our new family of 3.
