She's Here!

Hi Everyone,

As you may know, baby Caroline finally arrived on Tuesday! Greg and I are so ecstatic, and love her so much already.

I went into labor Tuesday during the day, after my midwife told me on Monday that if I didn't have the baby within 48 hours she would take me out to dinner :). Because so many books talk about how first time moms think they are in true labor when they really aren't, I wasn't quite sure it was the real deal until the contractions were really close together. They were about 15 minutes apart in the morning, then after Katherine and I took a walk they were about 8 minutes apart for 6 or 7 hours. To speed things up, we took another walk around 5 PM, which certainly worked! Between 6:30 and 8 PM my contractions sped up to about 4 minutes apart, and by the time we left for the hospital at 9 PM they were 3 minutes apart. Needless to say, after the 40 minute drive the hospital, I was ready to get some help! The nurse on duty admitted me, called my midwife, while Katherine (who was a SAINT, by the way) helped me through each contraction.

The whole time I was in the hospital I was begging for an epidural. Unfortunately, they couldn't call the anestheseologist until my midwife came, and once she came we had to wait for the anesthesiologist to come. My midwife came 30 minutes after I arrived at the hospital; by the time she called for an epidural I was already 9 cm dilated and it was too late! And thus, very unintentionally, I joined the ranks of women who have had a natural childbirth.

I'll spare all the details, but in short, Caroline was SO ready to arrive! She was born at 11:23 PM on October 6, after we had arrived at the hospital at 9:45. Pretty amazing. I was so blessed to have such a short labor - even the staff that was working with me was shocked at how quick it was, given that it was my first baby.

Caroline is absolutely beautiful, and so sweet. She is almost a week old and has already driven me to the crazy, sleepless, new mom state, but I love her anyway. She is so beautiful. Her older brother Rocky loves her very much, and her Dad just can't wait to get home and give her a kiss in person.

I will post pics next - just thought you'd like to know that she's arrived!