Leah Jeanne Coenen

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Originally uploaded by NickWI.

Well, it's finally done. At least this part is...

It was amazing, painful, scary, heart-wrenching and overwhelming. I can't believe we made it. I'll be honest, there were times when I really thought there was no way we were going to get that baby out naturally. My wife is amazing.

A brief rundown of yesterday's events. Jamie and I arrived at the hospital at 6 am as we were scheduled for the induction. We settled in our labor room and Jamie received an IV. The inducement proceeded pretty quickly with contractions starting to come pretty frequently at 7:45 am.

As things progressed, Jamie decided she wanted some Nubain for the pain. This seemed to help a lot as she looked much more comfortable and as I put it, "You are totally wasted on Nubain."

Things continued to get stronger and as the Nubain wore off, Jamie was in pretty rough shape. She asked for a second dose of Nubain, but it had little effect. I was pretty concerned at this point since she was moving along quickly (several centimeters in the span of an hour) and her body was having a hard time keeping up.

We had debated doing an ISN which is bascially a drug that numbs you from torso to the top of her legs. For the next few hours, contractions happened, but Jamie didn't really feel the pain from them. Jeanne and I went for lunch at this point.

When we came back, Jamie was very mellow but the contractions were starting to gain intensity again. We quickly realized that is was time to start again. The transition into active labor went pretty fast as well. Several contractions were hitting at a pace of 1 a minute each lasting a minute. Jamie was shaking a lot and she was feeling pretty scared.

Then it was finally time to push. The pushing was a relief since it was suddenly a way to release the pressure that was building up inside of Jamie. The relief was temporary though since the baby moved down quickly which added more pressure down lower.

After less than an hour of pushing, Leah Jeanne was in the world. It was amazing. The last couple of pushes and the actual release of the baby was something that is usually disturbing on a video, but when it is your own child it is honestly the most amazing thing I have ever seen. Knowing that this child is someone that I love instantly and that I am devoted to caring for and protecting is overwhelming. I was in tears many times yesterday and today.

I can't get over how much God blesses us with children. The love I feel for her is a love different than anything I have ever experienced. She has completely stolen my heart and I can't wait to get to know her better and to share life with her.