My due date was on Tuesday May 20, 2003, up until then I had no progression with my dilation, so my doctor had me come back every 4 days to be checked. On Tuesday May 27th, after my drs. visit, he sent me to the hospital to have a biophysical profile and non stress test. This would determine if I was to be induced or let me continue with the pregnancy. Everything was o.k., so they told me to come back on the 30th for another test. When I went to my appt. on the 30th, the doctor found me to be 2 cm dilated (yea!), He said that if I didn't go into labor on my own that weekend, he would schedule me for an induction on Monday June 2nd.

  In the early morning hours on Sunday June 1st, I awoke at 2:00am with some mild cramping, so I jumped into the shower just in case this was the real thing. I started to time them thinking they would probably stop after a few minutes, well after an hour of timing them they were 3-8 minutes apart. At 3:10am the contractions started to get more painful, I realized that this definitely was not false labor, so I decided to wake up Jason. He timed the contractions for me until 4:00am and they were still 3-5 minutes apart. At that time I called my OB/GYN and explained to him what was happening, he then told me to go to the hospital so they could monitor my contractions and determine if I was in labor. At 4:25am my MIL came over to watch the children and off we went to the hospital (and what a ride that was in the pouring rain). When we arrived around 4:40am, they took me into the triage unit to monitor me. Before the nurse hooked me up to the monitors, I told her that my last delivery went really fast, she called the resident doctor in to examine me and he said that I was 9 cm dilated. I said, "Oh no, not again, this is how my labor was with my 2nd baby"  I knew this meant no epidural! I was immediately taken to the delivery room and while they were getting ready, my water broke. I told the nurse and she looked at the fluid and told me there was meconium present (babies first stool). This worried me, I knew it wasn't good if the baby inhaled it into its lungs. She told me not to worry that the NICU team would be there to suction out the baby's lungs after birth. It was now 4:50am and I had to wait to deliver because my doctor was not there yet, that was the longest 30 minutes of my life! All I could do was use my lamaze breathing to get through the urges to push. Finally at 5:20am my doctor came into the delivery room and told me to start pushing on my next contraction. After three minutes of pushing, at 5:23am on June 1, 2003 I looked down and saw that we had a baby girl! Juliann was my biggest baby weighing in at 9 lbs. 12 oz. and 22½ inches. She didn't seem to be any bigger then the other two though.

  My dr. then handed her over to the NICU team so they could do their evaluation on her. They suctioned her out, for what seemed to be an eternity, and told me that she was doing great. She didn't have any of the meconium in her lungs (whew, what a relief). Then they brought her over to me so I could nurse and get to know my beautiful daughter.