Say hello to Hannah!

What a day! I walk into work a 9:00 this morning after having a wonderful breakfast with my dad to have my boss come up to me saying that I had to get to the hospital right away because Carmen has gone into labor. Needless to say, with 8 more weeks until the due date, I was more than just a little worried. When I made it into Carmen's room at the hospital 15 minutes later (it felt more like 45 minutes later), she was fairly calm and comfortable.

Her water had broken at home at 8:00, 10 minutes after my Dad and I had left the house (go figure) and had phoned our good friend Colleen (who lives about 4 blocks away) to give her a ride when she couldn't get hold of me. By 9:00, she was dilated to 2cm and was definitely going to be having this baby, the question was "How much time do the doctors have to help the baby's lungs mature?". The doctor's were hoping for 24 hours, just enough time for the medicine that was supposed to help the baby's lungs develop to take effect - oh if only it were that simple.

By 12:30, Carmen was starting to get really uncomfortable and decided that it was time for an epidural. After checking her progress revealed that she was at 5cm, the doctor decided that it was definitely time to get an epidural started. What a wonderful thing that epidural was! Now if only they could come up with something that effective for those 3/28 other days of the year. For the next 3 hours, Carmen and I rested and contemplated how glad we were that the baby seemed to be doing well, all the while cursing about her family's December baby curse and how our wonderful little early Christmas present was going to change (more like cancel, actually) our Christmas travel plans.

After a few false signals, at 4:05 in the evening the doctor came in and announced that it was time to push! Wait a minute doc, didn't you say you were hoping for 24 hours? By my math, it's barely been 8. Oh well, better do as the doctors say...

Now for the fun part (and the real reason for getting one of these magic epidural things): 5 Minutes after the doctors announcement, we were blessed with a 5 pound, 10 1/2 ounce healthy baby girl!

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