Courtney Cecilia is Here!!

Our beautiful baby girl has arrived!! Courtney Cecilia was born on November 20th at 12:34am. She weighed 6lbs 11 oz and measured 20 inches long. She's just beautiful!!

It was quite the experience. I went into the OB for my 9am appointment and was told that my blood pressure was high and it was time to get to the hospital. Right that minute! Paul and I headed over and we were pretty nervous and excited. We checked in to room A-1, we thought that was a good sign, and the fun began. I was hooked up to the petocin and had my water broken around 12:30 or so. There was a LOT of sitting and waiting while we waited for things to happen. I think I finally got the epidural around 4:30, a good 30 minutes too late, at least. I was in crazy pain, maybe I'm a wimp but the epidural was so worth it. I don't know why you wouldn't get one, given the option - I loved it!! Around 9:30 I was told that I was 7-8cm and for the next couple of hours, I didn't budge at all. However, I was in incredible pain and had to call the anesthesiologist in for more drugs. At 11:45 the midwife and the OB came in to let me know that they weren't happy with the progress I was making and every time I had a contraction, the babies heart beat was dropping too low. They had decided that I would need an emergency c-section (as in, I needed it right-that-minute) and within seconds there were tons of people in my room. It all happened very quickly and I was really nervous. Never, in all 40 weeks, had I envisioned myself getting cut open. I had always envisioned giving birth, having the baby on me immediately after she was out, and being alert for all the bathing and everything and that's definitely not what happened. The anesthesiologist threw Paul's outfit at him and he got all dressed and I was whisked to the OR. They didn't let Paul in right away but he came in after a few minutes.

It wasn't a terrible experience but it certainly wasn't enjoyable. There was a drape in my face and Paul was by my head. I was awake for all of it and could feel some tugging and lots of pressure but it was all very surreal. I had no idea what was going on and it seemed like it took forever for Courtney to come out. All of a sudden, the doctor told Paul to stand up and get the camera and there she was. She was crying and making all kinds of noise but I didn't really get to see her. They took her to the warming station about 10 feet behind me and Paul went over with her. I could kind of see what they were doing but couldn't really see her well but I could hear her and they finally brought her over to me so I could see her. Of course, I was crying but they were still working on me, putting me back together and I couldn't hold her or anything.

Paul and Courtney went off to the recovery room and the doctor told Paul that I'd be in recovery in about 15 minutes. (Disclaimer to the queasy here.) Apparently, there was a lot of blood from my uterus and they couldn't get it to stop so it took a long time to get me all back together - sew it up and put it back in place. I could feel a lot of pressure and tugging and pulling and it was very unnerving. They finally finished up though and wheeled me off to recovery.

In the meantime, Courtney was bathed and had all of the tests run on her (she scored a 9.9 on her Apgar - an overachiever already) and P was there to take pictures and video. He was worried about me though because it was taking so long for them to get me into recovery and no one would tell him anything. And, of course, he wasn't allowed back into the OR to see what was going on.

Needless to say, I finally arrived in recovery where I finally got to hold Courtney and take my first shot at feeding her. She's so amazing. She's so tiny and adorable and beautiful and has so many little facial expressions - and that was all in the first 5 minutes of meeting her.

We didn't get to our room until close to 4 and Thursday proved to be a very long day. Lots of doctors and nurses, in and out all day but each day is better than the last and we're all getting along very well as a family. Of course, we're still in the hospital so we're pretty self contained in our little cocoon of a room but that's ok.

My folks come in later today and we'll get to go home tomorrow. I'm really looking forward to getting home and being back with our own things.

I love being a mommy and just love my little girl. It's so amazing how quickly one can be overcome with feelings over a 6lb little person.

And I would be remiss not to mention that Paul has been an amazing husband, helper and dad. He's been a HUGE help with everything from diapers to getting me water and peanut butter crackers, burping and washing bottles and everything. I think we're both very lucky that there's a McDonalds in the hospital to keep him well fed with Egg McMuffins. I just love my little family and couldn't be happier.