This is the story of Mommy's pregnancy and my birth. Mommy took a home pregnancy test on June 6, 1997 and found out that she was pregnant with me. Mommy and Daddy were both very excited and could not wait to tell everyone. They told my grandparents that very same day and they were all very excited too. Mommy went to the doctor soon after this and had an ultrasound to find out when I would be born. The doctor said that I would be born around February 12, 1998. Over the next few months Mommy and Daddy started getting ready for my arrival. They did not want to find out if I was a boy or a girl so they did my room in Noah's Ark and painted the walls green and yellow. Mommy was given two showers before I was born. One was from our church and the other one was from Mommy's work. We were given lots and lots of presents to help Mommy and Daddy get ready for me. Well, time passed and so did the 12th of February and I still had not arrived. Mommy had started dialating and effacing but I was pretty comfortable inside her and didn't want to come out so on Friday, February 17, 1998, the doctor decided it was time for my long awaited arrival. Mommy went to the hospital around 5:30 that morning and was hooked up to a monitor so they could watch Mommy's contractions and my heartbeat. As soon as they hooked her up they said she was having contractions but couldn't feel them. Next they started an I.V. on her with a medicine called Pitocin to make her contractions stronger. This was all started by around 6:00 a.m. and Mommy was about 2.5 cm dialated and 50% effaced. The nurses kept checking Mommy all day to see how we were progressing but the process was going very slow. Mommy got an epidural put in her back so that the contractions wouldn't hurt so bad. We had lots of family that were in the room with us all day waiting for my arrival. Around 4:30 p.m. or so Daddy asked everyone to leave the room so Mommy could try to take a nap since it looked like we were going to be there for a while because she was only dialated to 5 cm after all this time. Well, she took about a 45 minute nap and the doctor came in to check on her around 5:15 p.m. because she was getting ready to go home. When she checked Mommy was completely dialted and effaced and she could feel my head!! All of the family had gone to eat so Daddy had to call them and tell them to come back because I was almost here. Mommy started pushing at 5:30 p.m. and I was born at 6:04 p.m. The doctor announced "It's A Girl! Mommy and Daddy were both very excited. I was finally here. I was 8 lbs 9 oz and 21 inches long.