Baby R is Here!

So, here's how it all went down. I went to the doctor last week and talked about scheduling my induction for Sunday or Monday. He told me Monday was not doable because the hospital was already completely booked, but he thought Tuesday was still open. The only problem with that would be that I tested positive for group B strep and some pediatricians make the baby stay a full 48 hours after delivery if the mom has group B. That meant we wouldn't be released until Christmas day. After discussing our options, N and I decided we'd contact Santa and see if he could come to our house early this year and I would stay in the hospital until Christmas day.

Monday morning I called my doctor because we still hadn't heard anything about the induction. They called me back and said the hospital was booked all week, but I was on standby for that day. Seeing as how the hospital already had 9 inductions scheduled for Monday I really didn't think we'd be getting in. We celebrated Christmas that morning and then I started to make cookies for a family party. The phone rang and N said, "It's the hospital!" They told me that if I could be in within the hour they'd get me started (we're thinking some strings might have been pulled to get me in, but we're not sure). Now, I hadn't taken a shower, my bags were no where near packed, and I was in the middle of baking cookies. I raced around the house trying to get everything ready and I left for the hospital. I made it and got checked in around 3pm. By 4pm they started all my patient in-take stuff and at 5pm my doctor broke my water and started the pit drip. I got my epidural and my labor continued to progress. At about 10pm my nurse said I was ready, but she wanted to wait half an hour to see if the baby would come down a little more. She called my doctor and at 10:45 he came in. The nurse asked if she should call the nursery and he said, "First let's do one push just to see where we stand." About 3 seconds into that push he said, "Quick! Call the nursery! The head is already out." Then he made a joke about something and I laughed the baby out the rest of the way. So, at 11:01pm, baby R made her debut. She had a true knot in her cord, which is kind of rare according to my doctor. (In case you are wondering, a true not means that she made a loop and swam through it to make a knot in the cord.) She weighed just over 7 pounds and was 19.5 inches long. She has a full head of dark hair (my first child to be born with hair).

I think it is a little early to say whether she is a "good" baby or not, but the kids are completely smitten with her. And, since I know you are all wondering: I'm doing pretty good. I'm not in a whole lot of pain and really it has been an easy recovery so far. Cross your fingers that it continues that way.