Alyssa is here!!!

Wednesday September 10th at 12:44 pm Alyssa Paige Lewis was born! She was 7 lbs 0.4 ounces and was 18 inches long...such a little peanut. She is absolutely perfect and sweet as can be.
At 5 am Wednesday morning Dave and I arrived at the hospital to be induced. I was still 3 cm and 90% effaced when we got there and they started the pitocin around 5:30 am. They raise it in increments of 2 until they get to 20. It was raised to about 13 by 1030, I was having contractions but nothing painful. I felt them but Dave and I were just hanging out playing cards, waiting for the action to start. Most of our morning was spent listening to the lady next door screaming and cursing non-stop. The nurses and doctors kept reassuring us that she wasn't normal. At 1030 they checked me again, still only about 4 cm so they still did not consider me in true labor yet. They decided to break my water and continue to up the pitocin. As soon as they broke my water, I started to feel the contractions but i was still reporting them a 3 or 4 out of 10 on the pain scale. I reported a 5 or so a little before noon. Then at noon, what I would consider pain actually started. I started to have to breathe through the contractions and stop talking during them. By 1215 I was hurting really badly and said I was going to give into the epidural, which I did not want. The reason I was going to give in was because I figured I was still only around 4 cm and was going to be in that level of pain for like 8 hours more (since they told me on average it would take 12-14 hours once I was in true labor). Then like 2 minutes later I told Dave I had to push, I figured I didn't really have to but to get the doctor to come check me anyway. She checked me and to all of our surprise I was 10 cm and Alyssa was already on her way out. I started pushing and the nurses were telling me which pushes were good and which weren't as productive. So after I got the advice I asked the doctor how many more contractions would it be possible to get her out. She said if I did it right, 2. I said okay, it gave me a goal, I did it and got her out at 12:44 pm after 22 minutes of pushing. They had already called anesthesia, didn't have time to call back and cancel, so he showed up after Alyssa born. So it was obviously a little late, which was great since I really wanted all natural. The nurses and doctor said that I made it look really easy and for a first time mom it was incredibly quick. They also told me for my next baby to get to the hospital asap once I have a painful contraction since it went so quickly and make sure I tell my next doctor how quick it was so we could plan and not have the next baby in the car on the way to the hospital. So I'd say I was only in true pain, what I was thinking labor would be like, starting at about 12 and she was born 44 minutes later...so it was not bad at all. I was scared since people say pitocin makes labor so much more painful and the epidural was inevitable, but I did it 100% drug free...no epidural, no iv pains, no local.
Alyssa came out so perfect and didn't really even have a cone head shape since it was so quick. She has tons of dark hair and we're thinking she looks more like Dave, but its hard to tell right now. We got home from the hospital at 1045 am friday and then left for Dave's winging around 1145. We were out all day and she was wonderful. I'll try to keep posting pictures, we already have a million of her!