It's a Girl!

Yes, that's right, I am a father. At 5:30 AM Monday morning, Jen began to have some stronger contractions. She had had some since the previous Tuesday, but these were different and stronger. They became closer together until they were 2-3 minutes apart, right when we were instructed to go into the hospital. We went in at 11 AM were sent home after observation at about 4:30 PM because she was not making enough progress. This was our gorgeous corner room.

We went home with Jen's contractions getting stronger. We learned how to breath, and Jen took naps between contractions. Since contractions were 2-3 minutes apart already, our new instructions were to come in when the pain was unbearable. At 8 PM we went in and after an hour of observation she was admitted, and subsequently received an epidural, which helped her relax. She didn't progress terribly fast after that but jumped from a 6 at 1 AM to a 9 at 2 PM. At 3 she was complete and ready for stage 2 but the doctor on call kinda wanted to wait around as long as possible for our doctor to be able to be there so he told the nurse to "wait and descend." I think that's what she called it. Well, after two hours of that, at 5 AM, Jen started to push. At 6 AM a change in shifts caused some confusion, and Jen's epidural medicine to run out and she began to feel the pains of labor. It took a while to get her to a level that allowed her to push again, about 30 mins. Our doctor was there a little past 7, and the baby was born at 7:48 AM, May 30th 2006, at 6 pounds 14 ounces, measuring at 18 3/4 inches. Her name is to be decided and she has a full head of strawberry blond-ish (auburndy-ish, depending on who you ask). Both Jen and the baby are doing great.