The Greatest Gift

Miss A

Our daughter was born a week before Christmas on December 17th. We are in love with her and have thoroughly enjoyed these first 10 days with this beautiful, new life!

At nearly a week over due we decided with the doctor to induce labor on the 16th. It was a 19-hour day in the hospital, with about 13.5 hours of pain-med free go-get-em labor (while restricted to an oxygen mask and machines given bebe's propensity to move her heart away from the fetal monitor), I did not progress much in dilation (and not at all in the last 4 intense hours of contractions), so the call was made at 1am to move ahead with a cesarean section. A team was called in and assembled. My amazing doctor and her surgeon husband ran the operation which went as smoothly as could be. She was tilted in such a way that would not allow her to lower and engage for delivery. Plus, my pelvis was a bit small for her. Her being overdue and the failure to progress proved she would not arrive traditionally no matter what.

I don't know if the doctor wanted to make me feel better by saying so but she did state that in all her 22 years of OB work I was the toughest laboring women she encountered. As the surgery wrapped up Harry Belafonte's music played in the OR and we all sang along. I think I was delirious from the last 20 hours and for bebe to finally arrive! Andy was amazing and we never cursed--it was just a focused day of hard work as a team. And here's where that got us:

We love her hair. We love her alertness. We laugh when she poops on us. We love her sleeping on us. We adore her big hands. We marvel at her sounds and arm stretches. We strive to soothe her when needed. We feel all is right and we have our family.

I wasn't hit over the head with overwhelming feelings and emotions. Rather, this start to Motherhood has been like waves washing over me with its amazing meaning and love.

I'm sure we'll read more soon about our beginnings with Miss A from Daddy, but for now I need to sneak in a shower while I can and before she needs to feed.

*Amy

ps--it's amazing how quickly we have begun using the third person when addressing ourselves as Daddy and Mommy. No hesitation to embrace those titles!

Yup, the Waiting Game

I thought we'd be done with pregnancy posts, but why not share an update as we wait for bebe girl to decide when she wants to make her debut?

Her due date on Saturday the10th obviously came and went. Actually, it was a warm and fantastically beautiful day so we took to Totem Park in Sitka for some brisk walking (by Amy's standards). She's dropped a lot.

This location is where Andy and I took a walk in January and discussed being open to starting a family. Seemed fitting to return to the area on the very day we've focused on for most of this year.

Maternity leave started today and we spent a good while this morning at the hospital for an ultrasound, Non-Stress Test and bio-screening. Everything shows that bebe is still doing well inside and all is functioning as it still should. From the quick look at her face she seems to be sprouting some major lips! I think they'll take after Andy. We had very visible confirmation that she is still a she. And we were given the very loose estimate of weight at 8 lbs. 1 oz, plus or minus 19 ounces!!! What a margin of error!

I am 2 cm dilated, thinning and effacing without contractions kicking in. Let's get kicking, I say! The plan is to repeat this morning's routine again on Wednesday if nothing transpires.

As we just wait and wonder, we pick away at house cleaning and walking. The baby/guest room is nearly finished (but again, she'll stay upstairs with us for her early months).

The dresser can only fit in the closet. It is FULL!

Andy says it's a lot of toe-tapping and kinda stinks not having control, but we'll take her when she's good and ready. Thanks for your thoughts and inquiries!

*Amy

Gorneration @ 39 weeks

Final belly blog photos at 39 weeks (chubby face included)!

Bebe is moving around as I type. 9pm is her party hour. Like clockwork she gets ants in her pants, or amniotic fluid. Maybe she likes that hour because that's when Andy and I have been indulging in an episode of "Friday Night Lights" over Netflix. The football games in the show might serve as inspiration for an internal PE class.

Andy's been great with working on our to-do list. And in the midst of our list he managed to shoot another buck after Thanksgiving and get it processed this week in our garage. I hope bebe has been enjoying her salmon, halibut and fresh venison diet thanks to her daddy. We also bottled his homebrew beer which I expect to be one of my first adult beverages when the time is right.

Pretty much our plethora of snow has been washed away by warmth and rain. We could have any sort of weather (snow, rain, sleet, sun) what ever day she decides to arrive.

*Amy