Just barely born!
Getting scrubbed
All soapy
Having a shampoo
Clean!
Finally getting a nap
Natalie started having regular contractions Tuesday night at like midnight, so we went in to the hospital. It was a perfectly cool night with a huge crescent moon and wispy clouds blowing by in the breeze. When we got to the hospital, of course, her contractions completely stopped. They were about to send us home, but the nurse very wisely suggested that Natalie was already so far dilated, maybe we should just stick around. Within 15 minutes, the contractions were coming again very regularly and getting heavier. Within a couple of hours the contractions were so strong that Natalie didn't think she could take much more. She and the nurse both agreed that this would be a good time for the epidural. The nurse gave Natalie a light narcotic to help her relax until the anesthesiologist arrived. That was really helpful, and by the time he got there she was doing better. It was funny to watch him work, he had a little ritual that he did while he was preparing all the tools he needed. He looked like a shaman doing a ceremonial dance. He was really good at his job and the epidural worked like a textbook case. Natalie almost passed out during the contraction before the epidural, but she slept through the first one after the epidural kicked in. We both tried to rest for a while. After a few more hours, the nurse checked Natalie's cervix and made a funny face that we both thought meant that Natalie wasn't progressing very well. It turned out that the face meant that she was progressing much more quickly than expected. She was pretty close. The nurse went off to page the doctor. When he got there, he was walking a little funny. He said he had an inner ear infection that was giving him vertigo but that we shouldn't worry, he had already delivered one baby that morning. He checked Natalie and said he thought she would have the baby by about noon. Then he left to go to his office. He wasn't gone long before the nurse had to page him right back because the baby was coming so fast. Natalie started pushing around 8:00 AM. The epidural worked great and she couldn't feel any pain. Some poor girl down the hall was obviously having her baby unmedicated because she sounded like she was being slowly cut in half with a chainsaw. I think her baby will come out knowing every swear word in the English language and a few in some language I didn't recognize (probably gibberish). Our labor ended so peacefully. I was really grateful for the calm nurse, calm doctor, and the epidural that let Natalie stay relaxed. She pushed little Ava's head out at 9:50 AM and she slid out into the doctor's hands. She didn't cry at all. She just looked calmly around at the bright lights and did a little bit of what looked like Tai-Chi. The doctor said, "Ooh, she's very athletic!" We washed her off, weighed her and took her footprints while the doctor finished with Natalie. Ava didn't cry once the whole day, not even when they gave her two shots. They even put her on oxygen at first because they thought she wasn't breathing. She was though, she's just calm. All the nurses in the nursery are calling her "the one that doesn't cry", which I think is adorable. She had some blood on her head when she came out which we all thought was Natalie's. But when we washed her off, it turned out that she had four long cuts along the top of her head. No one could figure out where they came from. One of the nurses said it is common for babies to cut themselves on the mother's pelvic bone, which I think is the best theory. I thought at first that the doctor may have nicked her when he did Natalie's episiotomy, but they are too long to have come from that. They are healing up fine though, and she doesn't even know they are there I'm sure. She is already nursing really well and sleeping a lot. She's just the cutest thing ever and we both love her as much as it is possible to love someone. We are so grateful that things went as well as they did, and that Ava is so healthy and wonderful.