I was due to have my daughter January 18. She finally came – eight days late! Not bad for a first-time mom, although I have to admit that I had a little bit of help along the way.

I was admitted into the hospital on Thursday, January 24, for an induction, just one day shy of being 41 weeks along. My doctor had checked my cervix the day before and it was determined that since I was only 1 cm dilated, they would begin my induction with Cervidil and see how I responded to it. Cervidil is sort of like a long, thin tampon that gets pushed up against the cervix to help it ripen. The goal was to thin mine out and start dilating. They placed it around 10:30p that evening with the intention of taking it out twelve hours later. Unfortunately, the Cervidil was extremely painful for me and made it nearly impossible for me to do anything besides sit in bed and deal with the pain in my cervix.

At 4:30a the following morning, I couldn’t take the pain anymore. I requested that the doctor take out the Cervidil and check my cervix, and if necessary, he could insert another kind of medicine that would continue to ripen my cervix. First, they gave me morphine and allowed me to wait a bit before having to deal with a cervical check, just to give me a little bit of a break. The morphine took the edge off and I allowed the doctor to check my cervix an hour later; I had gone from 1 cm to 3-4 cm within only about six hours, even though it was originally supposed to be in for twelve.

I had been told that I could have an epidural at any point during my labor, unless I was close to delivery. by then, I was already in a lot of pain, but I wanted to see how far I could go before having to ask for it. Eventually, I caved, and at 9:45a, I was given an epidural, which was, in a word, absolutely terrible. (Having scoliosis, which is a curvature of the spine, made things difficult for both me and the doctor trying to stick the needle into my back.)

About fifteen minutes later, after the epidural had kicked in, the doctor checked my cervix to see how we were progressing, and I was at 5 cm. We seemed to be going somewhere, and I was excited at how quickly things were going, especially considering this was my first pregnancy.

They allowed me to continue without the use of Pitocin, since I seemed to be doing so well. I was given a few hours to dilate, and around 2:30p, I was at 8 cm. I was so close to being at that magical number 10, and I was so sure it wouldn’t be long before I would be holding my baby in my arms.

Unfortunately, things slowed down from there. The epidural really got in the way of my progression, and my water wasn’t breaking. At about 4:50p, when I hit 9 cm, I allowed the doctors to break my water. Unfortunately, the next two cervical checks over the few hours showed that I had hit a standstill: I wouldn’t progress past 9 cm. Later that evening (I can’t remember what time, I was pretty heavily drugged up by that point), I was told they’d be putting me on Pitocin to induce contractions in my uterus. If I didn’t hit 10 cm after a couple of hours, then we’d talk about a C-section, which I really wanted to be a last resort.

Sometime around midnight (again, not sure when), they checked me for the final time, and I’d finally managed to dilate completely and they were ready for me to push. It took them a few minutes to get set up, and by the time 1:37a came around, I’d had my little girl, “Boo.” The coolest part of the delivery was the doctor telling me to “look down” and “reach for her,” which I wasn’t expecting. I “caught” my own daughter as she was being born, pulled her up to my chest, and they cleaned her up mostly while she was lying there on top of me. She wasn’t crying, though, and they ended up pulling her off to the side to check her out for a few minutes and make sure everything was in working order.

From the first contraction to the time I delivered, I was only in labor for about 22 hours, and pushing only lasted for about 45 minutes. Given that I’m a first-time mom, and the average labor is 24 to 36 hours for most first-time mothers, I was pretty happy with it. She was 8 pounds, 8 ounces, and measured 21 inches long with a head circumference of 14.25 inches. She was a big baby, and I have no idea how she ever fit inside my body, but it does explain why she was still kicking my ribs, even after she had moved down into my pelvis.

My only regret is that I didn’t get a lot of pictures during delivery, and I would have liked to have had a photo of her lying on my chest the moment she was born. The pain was the worst I’ve ever had, and it was easily the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but it was so worth it; I was officially 41 weeks and 1 day along when she finally made her appearance that morning. Despite all the complaining I did over the course of the time I was pregnant, and all the pain I endured during my contractions, I would do it all over again in a heartbeat. She’s the most beautiful, perfect thing in the world and I wouldn’t trade a moment of it for anything. I’m loving being her mom, even when it’s difficult, and I honestly can’t wait to do it again.

But next time, it will be a planned pregnancy, at least so we can feel a little more prepared the second time around.

Given that I’m now less than a week from my due date, I figured it was time for us (meaning me) to clean out the room that we plan on using for the baby. Over the last couple of months, it sort of became our “everything” room; when we needed a place to store something, we’d throw it in there, figuring that we’d get around to cleaning it out eventually. Then, yesterday, I realized my due date was only six days away, she could come anytime, and if she did, her room was a disaster. We could barely get to the crib. I took it upon myself to do some cleaning.

It took me a few hours, but the end result makes me pretty happy. It is also serving as a study, in addition to being her room, so the desktop computer is in here, along with all the stuff we’ll need for her. We didn’t have the money for a new dresser, and my boyfriend didn’t like the idea of me putting our dresser in here, so we don’t have one of those. You’ll notice that we also don’t have an actual changing table; I asked for one at my baby shower, but instead, my mom got us the Pack ‘N Play, which has a little changing area on top of it. I know she’ll outgrow it fairly quickly, but until then, I think it was a good investment, especially since I can move it out into the living room for her to take naps in. It’s also a little playpen, which I’m not sure I’ll use too often, but I think it’s nice to have. If nothing else, we can always store her toys or something in it.

The futon was sort of an accidental addition to the room. My mom was looking to get rid of it a while back, and asked us if we wanted to take it. Immediately, we said yes, because we’d been looking to get rid of one of our couches anyway and thought we could replace it with the futon. Shortly after she gave it to us, we had a pair of friends offer to give us their old couch as well – which was in excellent condition, and we couldn’t pass up the offer. The futon ended up in the second bedroom, and getting everything to fit without feeling too crowded with this thing in the room was difficult, but I didn’t really want to get rid of it. Plus, my mom’s Mickey Mouse blanket needed a place to go, right?

As I said, the desktop computer is in here as well. We really had nowhere else to put it, except maybe the living room, but my boyfriend hated the idea. We had the desk in our living room in the first apartment we lived in together, and it was such a pain to deal with. It was constantly in the way and we hardly ever used it. When we moved into our second apartment, we were able to shove it into a corner of the bedroom where it was relatively out of the way, and we used it all the time, but our bedroom there was pretty crowded. In our new place, if we didn’t have two large couches and an entertainment center, we might have room for it out there, but it’s pretty full as it is when it comes to furniture. Same with our bedroom as well. This was really the only spot we could fit it. (Fun fact: you can’t really see it, but there’s a Mickey Mouse lamp sitting there in the corner. It was also something I got from my mom.)

Here’s her crib. We were originally going to just use the one that I slept in as a baby, but my grandparents got a good deal on this, not realizing that we already had plans for a crib. I like the way it looks, despite the fact that it’s kind of dated. We did have to “fix” the sides on it, though; it’s a drop-side crib and both sides move up and down. Unfortunately, we were missing the bars that go on the bottom of each side to make them move up and down. We couldn’t afford a new crib, and I didn’t want to bother with the hassle of having to bring another one down this way since my mom lives over an hour away, so we got brackets and fixed the sides so that they’re both all the way up. We’ve messed with it a lot to make sure that it’s solid and doesn’t pose a risk to the baby. I’m comfortable with what we did. Also, the blanket sitting on the side of her crib was made by me; it’s fleece that I got from Joann Fabrics for just over $6 and I tied the sides together. I won’t be putting this in the crib while she’s sleeping, but I still like that the color matches the colors in her bedding and crib bumper. I figure we can use it for “tummy time” or to keep her warm in her car seat when we’re out somewhere.

The bumper, and the sheets, inside her crib are from the Circo Neutral line at Target. I know a lot of people don’t like crib bumpers, because of the risk of SIDS, but the exact cause of SIDS has yet to be determined, and I figure if they’re truly as dangerous as some people believe, they would no longer be on the market, right? In all honesty, I’m not worried about it at all. I like that it’s colorful and gives her something to look at while she’s in the crib. I also like that it can help drown out distractions of the other items in the room. I know plenty of babies who slept in cribs with bumpers, and I’m not incredibly worried about SIDS. Maybe it makes me a bad mom, but the risk is incredibly low, and I read an article about how the bigger issue is “accidental suffocation.” When a baby dies suddenly in a crib, most people automatically think it’s SIDS, but there’s usually a detectable reason as to why it happened. Click here to see the article on NPR.

In short, I’m not worried about my bumper. It’s cute and I don’t think we’ll have issues with it. If I change my mind later, I can always take it out, that’s not an issue at all. I know there’s also a stuffed animal in the crib, but that won’t be there when she sleeps either; we just needed a place to put it for now. It’ll likely sit on the futon when she’s in her crib. And those letters? They’ll find their way to the wall eventually, but my boyfriend and I haven’t had a chance to put them up yet. We also have two shelves that still need to go up. Oops.

Finally, here is her closet. Look at all the diapers! I have some more clothes that still need to go in here, and the whole thing really just needs to be organized better in general, but for now, this is what it looks like and it will probably continue to look like this until after she’s born and I actually find the motivation to rearrange everything and sort through what should go where. (The fact that my boyfriend and I also have some of our own things in here doesn’t help the fact that it’s disorganized, either.) Remember how I said we couldn’t afford a dresser? I had a gift card given to me from one of my former coworkers when I found out I was pregnant, which I used to buy the plastic drawers and some white storage containers, one of which you can see in the top drawer there. They still weren’t exactly cheap, but it was better than buying a dresser, and they fit together perfectly. Besides, I figure no one’s probably going to see it anyway, so I don’t really care much about how pretty it looks.

That’s how I spent the majority of my afternoon and evening yesterday. Other than the fact that my hospital bag isn’t packed and her car seat isn’t in the car yet, she could probably come tomorrow and we’d be ready. Her room would, anyway. Psychologically, I don’t think either of us is ready to be a parent just yet, but we’re a little bit past the point of no return now.