Our Little Princess is finally here-Introducing Nana Ahenfoa Elise Corey

It is so surreal. It still feels like a dream. I do not want to click my heels in case it is a dream. Our baby girl is here and she is perfect. God has been so good to us. On May 7th around 2am, I started feeling some cramping but I did not thing anything of it. I went back to sleep and then around 330am I had been to the bathroom and returning to bed when my water broke. I could not believe it. I was joking around at work that I was not showing up for work that day because I was going to have the baby. Well, it turned out to be real. James was so excited when I woke him up to tell him we had to go to the hospital. We arrived at the hospital at around 500am. My contractions were strong but tolerable. I did not want to get an epidural because I wanted an all natural birth. James helped me use breathing techniques to get through the contractions. Apart from the contractions, I had very bad cramping in my legs and a very severe heartburn and this was making my labor even worse than it was supposed to be. My nurse, Ruth, was very helpful too. She gave me massages, encouragement and she was doing energy kinesiology which was surprisingly very helpful. James thought the use of energy kinesiology was weird and funny. It was helping me so I did not mind it at all. At about 1000am, I was 5cm dilated and the pain was unbearable so I opted for an epidural. I was so disappointed with myself and felt as if I was putting myself before my baby's. The epidural helped me relax and took all the pain away in about 15 minutes. I could feel the pressure of some of my contractions but no pain. I felt numb from the waist down and was afraid I would not be able to push since I had no feeling. At 1200 noon, I was 8cm dilated. At 200pm, I was still 8cm dilated and the baby's heart rate was dropping with my contractions. The doctors were concerned that I had not progressed in 2 hours so they gave me Pitocin to help make my contractions stronger and progress my dilation.I was also given oxygen to prevent the dropping in the baby's heart rate. I was upset because I knew the epidural had slowed down my labor, caused the drop in heart rate and was scared it was going to cause other complications. After I received the oxygen and pitocin, everything was fine. At 4pm, I was fully dilated and ready to push. I was scared and anxious about the pushing to the point that I was shaking. I thought it would be horrifying and long. Fortunately, it lasted only 15 minutes in 3 contractions and Nana Elise was out. She is the most beautiful and precious baby we have ever seen. She was born at 418pm on Thursday May 7th, 2009. She weighed 5.15 and was 19 inches long. She did not cry much when she came out. She is very calm and content. She is a good eater, and a wonderful baby. We are so in love with her.