My Babies' Blog: Fiona Rose is here!

She was born on Thurs 3-18-10 at 8:35pm and weighed in at 8lbs, 6oz. She was 20 inches long and came out with a full head of brown hair. She definitely has parts of both Sean and me in her and is a beautiful, healthy little girl.

Her birth story (I'll try to keep the TMI out, but can't make promises):
I woke up at 4:30am Thurs morning to cramping in my belly so I got up and watched early morning TV for a while. The cramps didn't go away so I timed it for a little while and they seemed about 10-15 minutes apart. So I went about my morning activities (breakfast, shower, etc) and around 10am decided to take a short walk. Sean went with me and the cramps seemed about 7-8 minutes apart. It was pretty obvious these were contractions, but it was hard to tell when they started and ended so I wasn't sure if it was the real deal or not. We got back and I ate some lunch and tried to distract myself. I think I took a short nap and sometime around 2pm decided to go for another short walk. We got about 20m from the house when I decided that we should probably just go to the hospital. At this point the contractions seemed about 4 minutes apart, but they didn't really hurt...just uncomfortable. As we were driving to the hospital I called my doctor to make sure I wasn't overreacting and they said to come on in. We got to admitting around 2:45pm and were in L&D by around 3pm. They had me change and got me hooked up to the monitors. When the nurse checked me for the first time I was expecting that she would say there was really any progress. I was pleasantly surprised to hear the I was 5cm, 100% effaced and my contractions were actually 1.5-3 minutes apart. Around 4:30pm I decided I wanted to try the birthing tub so Sean told them and they got it set up. They had to check me again before I could in and I was 7cm and water still intact. I got in there for a little while, but the contractions were getting worse by then so I decided that I wanted the epidural. The contractions were coming one after another and lasting longer. I think I could have gotten through them without it, but I don't regret my decision. They gave me the epidural at about 6pm and from 6-8pm I got to relax. The epidural didn't seem to significantly slow my contractions down either, which I had been worried it would. I was at 8 cm when they gave it to me and started pushing around 8pm. The doctor actually had to break my water before then because it never broke on its own. The only thing I didn't like about the epidural is that because I waited so long to get it, it was difficult to tell how hard to push. I listened to the nurse, but I think I pushed a little too hard because I got a pretty bad tear.

But she made it out safe and sound. She had a little mucus that took some time to clear out, but she came out screaming. She screamed pretty much the entire first 2 hours of her life. The nursery nurses were thrilled, but Sean and I didn't really like it too much. Once the doctor was done stitching me up and she was able to nurse she seemed a little happier, but that first night she woke up screaming so many times. I think I got maybe 2 hours of sleep from 4:30am Thurs to sometime on Friday. It didn't help that people kept coming in our room to check on us and run different tests.

ETA: I forgot to mention that she tied her umbilical cord into a knot with all her turning and somersaults...crazy. Yet she still managed to get enough nutrients to grow big and strong.

I'll post more stories about her in a day or two as time permits. Here's a couple of pictures of Fiona.