12/28/07...

So while labor technically started at 6pm, things didn't really start rocking till after midnight. The contractions started coming and our training kicked in. Breath... breath... breath. A minute of pain (for Michele of course) and then a few minutes of frivolity. Everybody was in good spirit and the nursing staff was fantastic.

That's pretty much how the night passed... light contractions, visitors, bleep-bleep-bleep. Michele was not allowed to eat anything other than ice chips and started to get pretty hungry as morning came... but it shouldn't be much longer (dun, dun, dun). Nurses changed shifts. Doctors changed shifts. We got comfortable with the layout. Contraction... laughter... contraction.

Around noon, with little progress in the last 18 hours of labor, the doctor decided to break Michele's water. The good news was that she was allowed to eat a sandwich and take a shower, which made her feel a bit more human. The bad news was that the breaking of the sack of water was, umm, reality slapping us in the face, and kicked the contractions in to high gear. I will not describe this actual procedure, but rest assured it was an experience. Then labor really started to ramp up... especially in the pain department. Michele changed positions a lot. Bed. Chair. Yoga ball. Walk. The contractions got longer and more intense. She had to focus to make it through them. I felt helpless. But it shouldn't be long now (dun, dun, dun).

Around 7pm we started discussing the epidural. Our plan going in was to go natural until it no longer seemed like a reasonable idea... reason was out the window. Michele had been up for two and a half days and in active labor for almost a day. Finally around 9pm she got the epidural and, now that she was comfortable, we settled in to try and get some rest.

to be continued...