@ the Hospital

Status - Taking a break.  Epidurals to the rescue.

Everything is progressing smoothly if not exactly to plan.  When we arrived Laura was contracting regularly and hard but was still *way* early in the dilation & effacement measurements; 1 cm (of 10) and 80% respectively. That result discouraged us somewhat but the hospital opted not to send us home because Lauras blood pressure was spiking pretty high during contractions.  A few tests later, and no issues found - yay.  

Then comes the next test to see how progress has moved in the last hour... SURPRISE - 5 cm.  Wow, didn't expect that - it can take half a day to move through that many cm; though Lauras contractions were major and hard.  After two hours of pain, Laura changed her mind (finally ;-) that she wanted some pain relief.  Another hour passes and she's gotten stuck; the pain is fading and progress has begun once more.  Last we checked - 7 cm and the baby's begun the slow passage down.  

Now we're both trying to rest; but I'm too keyed up and she's got lots of tubes that keep her from being totally comfortable.  

All our love... next post will likely have baby info.  Stay tuned :)