Sprout is OUT!!

So, yeah. Everything went pretty quick yesterday. Aww, who am I kidding. It went like a ROCKET!! Man!

When last I blogged, I had progressed from 1 cm to 10 cm in about 3 hours. And two of those hours were spent progressing without proper medication numbing my lower extremities. THAT was not fun. Holy cow. May God bless that second anesthesiologist richly. Is all I have to say. :o)

My OB got there, and got all suited up about 10:30, we got Dave holding one leg, the nurse holding the other, and I commensed to pushing. I think it was harder this time, pushing the baby out, than it was with Mookie, but she came out quicker. With Mookie, I pushed through 4 contractions, and with Sprout, I only pushed through 3. It took about the same amount of time, but it was just a smidge different. :o) And...

Sprout was born at 10:48am, and weighed 6 pounds, 7 ounces, and was 19.5 inches long.

A few minutes after birth

The proud Papa

My friend Emily came to the hospital Monday night to take pictures.

This is MAGICAL!!

Sweet sister smooch

A family of four.

Sweet Cherub Cheeks

(awesome quilt made by Kelly)

Mommy and baby (and Papa) are doing fine. We all got a bit of sleep last night, which was luxurious. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for more of the same tonight.

But for now, I've got to go fight with Dave for some snuggle time. He is Mr Grabby Hands with her. It's almost as bad as trying to pry the remote out of his hands!

Birth by iPhone - 10:00 Update

I could call this one "10 at 10" because I'm almost 10 cm already! GOSH!! Water broke, all good. Calling the doctor now! Next stop = new baby!!

Birth by iPhone - 9:00 update

As is my natural way of birthing babies, apparently, once I start, things progress fairly quickly (no baby, yet, though, don't worry!!).

What I meant by that was that I went from 1 cm to 5 cm in about 30 minutes, and I. WAS. FEELING. IT!! Through the epidural.  YOUCHIE!!!

I told the nurse, and we gave me one top-up shot, which offered no relief to my abdomen, then another 30 minutes later. Still no relief to my abdomen. I mean, really. What good is it if my toes are numb? They aren't birthing anything!! 

So she called the anesthesiologist back, and he came up and gave me a bolus/extra B-I-G shot, and all is well again. :o)

I will say, though, that Birth Day blogging isn't as easy as some women make it out to be! I like to type sitting up, using both hands. :o)  But, I'm certainly glad we have wireless in the room and I can blog regardless!

Dave has been chilling out, even napping a bit, and is now playing a trivia game. :o) Good to know he is enjoying himself!!

Birth by iPhone - 8:00 am update

So here we are, in the hospital, working on bringing Sprout into the harsh, outside world. I'm posting a lot on Facebook, but I want to keep this updated, too, for memory keeping. :-)

We arrived at the hospital about 5:15 am, and Nurse Marlene got me started with the lovely gown, the 4,679 questions, the IV, and the Pitocin with the promise that I was first on the anesthesiologist's agenda for the day, and then she left.

Within 15 minutes I was having painful contractions every 2 minutes, squeezing Dave's hand, trying to do my special breathing, saying lots of "doggones" and "wows" and "holy cows.". I put up with that for about 15 minutes, and called Marlene to ask if we could stop the Pitocin till I could get my epidural. No use in feeling pain if I didn't have to, right? :-). She asked me how I would rate my pain, and Dave said "8!" but I didn't cuss, so it couldn't have been an 8! :-)

As it turns out, even though I was first on the list, the anestesiologists were having a meeting so she thought I'd have to wait. ("No waiting! I neeeeed that epidural!!"). Thankfully, she made a call and they released an anesthesiologist to come up and get me all squared away. Yippee!! He came in, talked me through everything, and I was good to go. Thank goodness!

By then it was 7:00, and my day nurse, Crystal, came in to take care of me through labor and delivery. We got the Pitocin back on, and everything set up for the baby, so NOW I was ready.