Brooke has arrived - our birth story!

I can finally say that I am no longer pregnant! YAY! We went into the hospital on Thursday, July 3rd at 7:20 am. We got there, checked in and they showed us to our room. There was a cute little incubater in our room where Brooke would soon be lying. They started the dreaded Pitocin at 8:40am. I was pretty worried about this because it usually puts you into immediate hard labor, however, apparently, things have come a long way in the last 10 years. They were able to start it at a very low dosage to gradually get things going....key word....gradually. I began feeling some contractions, but not any worse than the ones I had been feeling at home for the last month. They tried to check to see if I had dialted more, but because of my "tilted uterus", they were unable to tell. So, about 9:15, they asked if I wanted the epidural. I felt wierd saying yes because I hadn't had any pain yet, but they recommended getting it before they broke my water, so of course, I said YES! The anesthesiologist was in my room by 9:30. She was a very funny, older lady from Boston. I had to roll over on my side and they had Mark face me to get my through the pain. She began getting to work. As she was doing her thing, she was telling me about the other aneshesiologist who is 7 feet tall, so this whole time, I am thinking that she is some kind of "prep" person and he will come in and insert the 10 inch needle I hear so much about. Meanwhile, she is administering the local anesthetic into my back. All of a sudden, I feel this liquid spray everywhere, turns out, some of the anesthetic squirted out of a loose cap or something and I only got some of it. Needless to say, everything else she did, hurt like no other. She said that "some patients" feel cracking, well, I felt it. "Some patients" feel burning and pulling...I felt that too. Unfortunately because she was all steril, she couldn't give me more of the local and just had to go for it, so I felt EVERYTHING and boy did it hurt. Poor Mark was holding my hand and probably felt just as much pain as I did because of the metal oxygen thing that was on my finger....it was digging into his finger with every squeeze. FINALLY, a few minutes later, she gets up and said she was all done. Now, I am expecting the 7 foot guy to come in and still do his thing, so naturally, I was 110% excited to find out I was all done. They were just simply telling me what the other anesthesiologist looked like...PHEW! They called my doctor to let him know that I was all ready for him to come and break my water. Dr. Clayton showed up around 10:30 and 5 minutes later, my water was broken. They were all anticipating that I would give birth around dinner time. By this time, my mom and dad had arrived at the hospital. JoAnn was on her way and was expecting to be there around 1ish. April and Lisa were coming on their lunch...around noonish. We were holding off on sending for the kids until we knew we were closer. So we just sat and relaxed a little. Mark grubbed on the Carls Jr. that my parents brought him while I grubbed on my delicious breakfast and lunch....popsicles. YUM! The contractions started getting closer and stronger, but I couldn't really feel a thing. The nursed kepts saying..give it a little longer and we will see if we can check you for progress. Finally, around 12:30 we decided to send my dad out to get the kids from Junior Lifeguards. So Mark walked my dad out so he can give him the beach pass. Right around when they left, the nurses came in to check me and I couldn't believe it, but I was dilated to 10 already. I text messaged April and told her to hurry because I was at 10 already. The nursed waited for Mark to get back so they could call over Dr. Clayton so I could start pushing. Mark arrived on the 5th floor and they were telling him to hurry up and get in the room because it was time to push. He was as shoked as I was. April and Lisa finally showed up and hung out in the room for a few minutes. I was able to feel the urge to push with every contraction, but it still didn't hurt...just alot of pressure. Finally, around 12:55, Dr. Clayton showed up and kicked everyone out, except Mark. They got him all ready and I gave my first big push at 1:00pm. He was immediately able to see the head and commented on her hair. The next contraction/push, they head was out. He then commented on her big cheeks...after her mom of course. Finally, the next push at 1:10pm, she was out. Everything was perfect...10 fingers, 10 toes - 7lbs, 15oz and 20 1/2 inches long! ...and even better yet, there was litterally NO PAIN! I couldn't believe it! I was able to hold her pretty quickly and then they took her over to her bed to clean her up. It was one of the best moments ever. Mark, me and Brooke spent about an hour alone in the room getting to know each other. It was a very special hour for us. She was beautiful! Finally, everyone else came in and got to meet Brooke for the first time. By this time, JoAnn and Stacie arrived at the hospital. My dad was also back with the kids. We stayed in the room for a while then they moved us up to the 7th floor where the mother and baby unit was. This is were we spent the next two days. We had lots of vistors, so we were all pretty tired by the next day. On day 2, we had only a few vistors, grandma and grandpa Alvarez, April and Camryn and big brother and sister, carlie and Josh. Our room over looked all of Newport and costa mesa, so the second night, fourth of july, Mark and I were able to sit on our bed and watch the most beautiful display of fireworks. We were able to see about 10 or so different firework shows all going off at once. All while our beautiful little girl layed beside us.