We're Here and Having a Baby

Well, by the time I got the internet, my computer and the pictures ironed out the "having a baby" turned into "had a baby". You'll see why I had time to start this post during labor below. But, here's the story...



Yesterday at a time so early in the morning I couldn't even register the number, Heather woke me up to tell me this might be the day, go back to sleep, but be ready to hop up and start calling people and packing the car.





The next time she woke me up it was around 3 something in the morning. The rest of the morning was a blur except that Mom showed up and Kelly showed up and we got into the car to drive to the Hospital. Mom, huge "Thank You" for waking up so early to come over and take care of the girls and watch them for us!





We immediately got a room and Heather was put on Arithromiacin for group B strep. Apparently that's something in everyone's body that can build up under the stress of pregnancy to dangerous levels for the baby if she were to get in contact with it. Thus, they wanted to put Heather on a 4 hour drip of this antibiotic before the baby came through the birth canal.





After much labor--consistent and strong contractions and dilation to 7 centimeters--everything paused. Heather was chillin in the gurney and we were all wondering what happened and what to do next. Coincidentally, around the time the antibiotic drip started, Heather's contractions faded out. So, Heather decided to start walking around the room and the contractions began again. However, once she had gotten back up in bed, the contractions stopped coming just as before.





We decided to have Dr. Zuckerman break her water, which surprisingly hadn't happened naturally yet. Before he arrived from whichever surgery he was completing, Heather started walking around again to get a good wave of contractions going. She wanted to progress things a little more before her water broke and intiated the onset of the challenging final contractions and pushing. It worked better than planned and she progressed on her own; her water broke and then she delivered at 12:26pm. It was a bit more challenging than Selah's delivery but a better experience than she had with Mckenna. I was waiting for Heather to ask for an epidural but once again she gutted it out through relaxing (how that helps, let alone how it is possible, I would like to know) and breathing those 'deep cleansing' breaths.





Praise God for this new little one. Alivia was born 6.13 lbs, 18.5 inches long. So far no jaundice as far as I can tell, and is very healthy. We are grateful to God for his kindness.