I thought it would be appropriate to start our blog with the new addition to our family! Our sweet baby girl was born on Thursday February 5, 2009 at 12:11pm. She weighed 9 lb 4 oz and was 20 inches long.
The Labor Story
My contractions started being regular around 6pm on Wednesday the 4th. We ate a good dinner and tried to get some rest that evening. Around 1am, the contractions were coming every 5 minutes. The doctor said to go to the hospital when they were 5 minutes apart for an hour. So we left for Clear Lake Regional around 2am. We called Donna, Chris' mom, who wanted to be there for the birth and she started driving down from The Woodlands. We checked into the hospital and found out I was 5cm dilated - halfway there. They also said Kiera was ballottable meaning she would float up during my exam instead of being engaged against my cervix. This changed my plans of being able to walk around during labor. They restricted me to the bed because they said until she was engaged, there was a risk of the umbilical cord coming out first.
I made the decision to try to deliver without an epidural. Our nurses were really nice and Chris and Donna were great support. At 7am Dr. Klein arrived to check on me. He said I was 7 to 8cm and he broke my water. I also asked for some non-epidural pain relief at this time and was given Stadol and Phenergan to take the edge off. Really they made me sleepy between contractions and I didn't open my eyes much after that. The last stage of labor from 8cm to 10cm was really rough. I was begging for them to examine me to say it was time to push.
The Delivery
Then the pushing phase started and man, that was harder work than I expected! The nurse kept saying, "you have to push this baby out, we can't do it for you". I think I pushed for about 45 minutes. My contractions slowed down, so there were long pauses of waiting between pushes. It was awesome to be able to feel her progress through the birth canal during that stage. Finally the nurses decided it was time to call Dr. Klein - we could already see/feel her head for goodness sake. Chris didn't think the doctor was going to make it, his office is across the street from the hospital! Dr. K did make it in time and gave me a local anesthetic. Shortly after that she was born! Dr. K said, "Whoa, that's a big baby". She was crying immediately. Then, as he placed her on my chest he said, "Here is your toddler"! I was amazed! She was so beautiful. I think I just kept saying "Wow" over and over. I asked the doctor what he meant by the toddler comment and he said, "your baby is at least 9 pounds". We couldn't believe it!
Chris cut the umbilical cord and then they whisked her away to clean her up and examine her. She scored 9.9 out of 10 on the Apgar score. We were impressed! The doctor stayed to stitch up my 3rd degree tear.
It's cold out here!
Proud Dad!
Proud Mom!
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