It's a GIRL!

We are so happy to have our new little Amelia here! She is so cute and we are in love with her! It's wild to think she has only been with us for a little over 15 hours and yet we can't imagine not having her with us!

Sunday morning around 7 am I woke up due to a pain in my back from Eleanor laying on me all night and found that my water had broke. I wasn't 100% sure because there wasn't too much water, but just to be safe John and I got up, showered, gathered a few things and headed for the hospital. Due to the swine flu, children under 14 are not allowed into the hospitals. Luckily, we had Mimi, Sara and Dick at our house and we were able to leave Eleanor home with them.

After arriving to the hospital we had a test to see if my water had really broke. The test came back negative but the nurse believed I had a high leak and sent us off walking around the hospital for an hour. After an hour of walking and regular contractions, I was dilated to a 4 and they admitted me. By this time it was already 10:30 am.

Once admitted, we got settled into the labor and delivery room and started calling family to tell them this was it! Around 12:30 I got my epidural and John went out to get some lunch. He got a little nervous when he didn't have cell reception and made sure to hurry back. For some reason the epidural never really numbed my right side so the Dr. upped the medicine which made me really sick. The epidural never really numbed my right side, but it did provide some relief and I was grateful for it.

My nerves started kicking in and I began thinking about Eleanor's birth and got a little anxious. With Eleanor my epidural had fallen out and I ended up pushing for 3 hours with no epidural. It was not fun! Anyway, I was so afraid this same thing would happen this time around and I started freaking out a little. Poor John kept trying to calm me down and help me get my mind off of it. It helped and I finally got a little rest.

Sara and Dick arrived around 2:30 and by this time I was at a 6 and surprised how fast I was progressing. I had forgotten to bring John and Eleanor's hospital photos and a few other things.

Around 3pm we they had shift change and we got our new nurse, Nicole. The second time she came in to check on things she started working fast and shifting me to a few different positions. The baby's heart rate was dropping pretty low and she was trying to get it to come back up. She told me she was going to have a few nurses come in and help out. Within seconds a crew of nurses came in and started moving! They put a monitor on the baby's head, hooked me up with some replacement amniotic fluid and put me in the most uncomfortable position. It was a little stressful for about 20 minutes, but finally they got me in a position that stabilized the baby's heart rate. I had to I was lay on my right side with my left leg up and bent. If I moved just the slightest, the babies heart rate would drop.

At this point I was up to a 7 and they said they would watch the baby's heart rate for a half hour and if it maintained at a healthily rate, they would start me on potassium to get things going a little faster.

At 4:15 Nicole came to check on things and told us I was at a good 9 and that the baby's head was right there. She called Dr. Yamashiro to see if he could make it. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to make it but his partner Dr. Sloan would be delivering me. She had already come in a few times to introduce herself and check on me and we really liked her. So Dr. Sloan was called in and by 4:30 they had me start pushing. Four contractions later and at 4:49 we got to see our sweet new baby! I was so excited to know if it was a little boy or a girl. I asked the Dr. right away what we had and instead of telling me, she just lifted the baby up so I could see for myself. I was SO excited when I saw that we had a new little GIRL!! The cord was around her neck and they didn't want her to cry because they were afraid she had swallowed a little meconium, but other then that she was perfect! She didn't last long before she made her first cry. They had a team from the NICU and they worked on her for a few minutes and made sure her lungs were cleaned out and she was breathing fine on her own. I remember looking over at her and thinking her skin was so pink and her little hair was so dark! I was so anxious to hold her!! I was so in love with her right when I saw her.

After they got her lungs cleared out they weighed and measured her. She weighed 7lbs 8oz and was 20 inches long. I had guessed she'd be between 7 and a half to 8 pounds and John had guessed she would be born at 5pm. So we both came really close to our guesses!

Finally, after everything was done I got to hold my sweet baby! Her checks were so warm and soft and she smelled so good. She was wide awake and was so calm. I could not get over her chubby little cheeks and pink skin!

Thanks to Sara we got a lot of great photos of her first few hours.