it's a girl

the stats

Schuyler Annabelle Young (pronounced "sky-ler")

born 1:43pm

weight 7 pounds 4 ounces

length 18 3/4 inches
Mother and child are doing well

the short version

• water broke at 1:30am
  
• we went to the hospital at 5am
  
• pitocin started at 10:30am
  
• baby delivered at 1:43pm


• Mama was a HERO with no drugs and only a TENS machine to help


• she was calm, cool and collected and earned the admiration of the whole delivery team plus a very proud husband and father
  

the long version

we arrived at 5am and were told that the water had not broken (it was presumed to be a "hind water sac leakage") and were told we should go home and wait and that the next nurse would discharge us.

the new nurse arrived and told us that our water had indeed broken and that we were to be admitted.

there were issues as the contractions coincided with a deceleration of the baby's heart beat and that this was most likely due to the cord being wrapped around the baby's neck

the contractions were mostly manageable at this point

we were told that continuing or speeding labour could be very dangerous and that a C section was likely.
at 10:30am they tried a low dose of pitocin (sp?) which sparked off some pretty severe contractions which progressed well but were much more painful. the baby's heart rate was dipping with each contraction but recovering afterward so they allowed it to continue.

by 11:30am we were at 7cm. liz was incredible and handled each contraction with unbelievable stamina - leaving the father to minor duties such as massage and control of the TENS machine

by 12:30 were were at 9cm and liz wanted to push - this wasn't forecast to happen until 2:30pm

the mid wife gave the ok to push as they rushed to get the room ready for an early delivery

the doctor arrived around 1pm and finally the head was delivered (man, did that look weird!) and little Schuyler started to cough a bit - at this point, jonathan started to weep unexpectedly in a way that made him doubt his manliness

finally the entire baby was delivered at 1:43pm and looked like a little alien from the X files - all white, purple and green with a conehead

at this point liz was very relieved and perked up as the baby was held up and the father tried (under a lot of pressure) to determine the sex and announced it was a girl!

Finally, we knew the sex of our baby - we had a daughter!

She was plopped onto liz's chest where Mama said hi to her daughter for the first time

She was whisked away to the cot nearby to have her lungs suctioned and finally we heard the telltale cry - the baby was alive and well and wailing - relief!

Liz has earned my undying gratitude and admiration. She kept her cool and showed her incredible resilience and fortitude... i was absolutely amazed and awed by her and this new little life.

Welcome to the world, Schuyler. We love you already.

it's 1:30am on April 30th

the water broke.... yay! the next time i update this, we should have a baby!

Godot has no idea

Well, April 28th is tomorrow and our next due date (final due date is the 30th) and this darn baby seems awfully cosy in his mama's belly. no obvious hints that s/he is planning to greet us any time soon. I've been trying to lure the baby out with fantastic stories of life on the outside but to no avail.

waiting for baby

so tomorrow is the official day... we've been waiting nine long months of punishing fatigue, crazy dietary requirements, sickness, mood swings and extra internal baggage and tomorrow is the first of the due dates. it wasn't until we entered the cult of pregnancy that i realised there was more than one due date. so tomorrow's is the one from the first "dating" ultrasound and is supposed to be the most accurate but so far this child is pretty stubbornly in utero and seemingly with no plans to enter the real world soon. we figure this will be typical behaviour from now on. the latest date would be the 30th which is what the doctor's magic cardboard wheel predicted so we may have a while yet but i think the human house is ready to evict its tenant. well, baby, we're waiting on you now, kid. We can't wait to meet you but give your poor mum a break and get out while we still love you.

In the beginning...

there was this.