The McElroy Family: Cameron has arrived!

Cameron Jo McElroy arrived on August 18th at 12:14 PM. On Monday night my water broke around 10:30. Brad was already in bed asleep so it took awhile to wake him up and make him understand what was happening. We got to the hospital around 11:00 PM and my contractions started on the way to the hospital. Once we got settled into the room, they told me that there was meconium in my amniotic fluid, which is not good for the baby. They said that this meant that some nurses from the NICU would be here to check her out right after the delivery. I wasn't too concerned because it didn't sound like a big deal. Even after a couple hours of painful contractions, I was still only dilated to 2 cm so I got my first epidural. I didn't know that the process of getting the epidural inserted would be even more painful than the contractions! I immediately felt better afterwards and even slept through a couple hours of contractions. Then the epidural wore off. Over the next few hours, they upped the strength, gave me a second epidural, then upped the strength again. Nothing helped the pain. Soon I was dilated to 4 and then 6 and then I was telling the nurse that I felt the urge to push. I ended up pushing for an hour and a half. I CANNOT believe how painful it was! Brad was a great coach and soon I was watching Cameron being lifted over to the NICU nurses. I got to hold my girl for a minute before they took her down to the NICU. They called it meconium aspiration and she had to spend the rest of the week in the NICU so that they could make sure it was all out of her lungs and stomach. Needless to say, we are sooo happy to be home :)