The newest member of our family was born this past Saturday night, a mere six hours after I had my first contraction. Skeptical at first, after experiencing four days of labor with our first child, I hesitated to admit that I was in full blown labor, but that only lasted a couple hours and then we were headed to the hospital. We spent about an hour in triage, where labor continued to progress at lightning speed and were finally admitted and moved into an actual room. I had gone into this labor fully intending to have a natural birth, but at about 7cm, began begging for an epidural. The nurse started to get an IV set up, but couldn't even get past inserting the needle, much less get an anesthesiologist into the room quick enough. I moved from 7 to 8.5 in about 10 minutes, and in about another 15 or so, little miss Olivia arrived after a couple pushes. My midwife didn't even make it there in time, and the on-call doctor barely made it through the door fast enough to catch her. I got my natural delivery after all, though I'm not sure I'll ever be doing that again if avoidance is at all possible. We'll see. Maybe that magical mommy amnesia will kick in and I'll work up the courage to go all natural once again. Highly doubtful.
The wonderful Alexandra Treat is coming by tomorrow to take some newborn photos for us, but it will probably be a few weeks before we have pictures to share, so this one will have to tide you all over for now.
We love you, sweet Olivia! Welcome to the family!
