Introducing Baby Samantha

Samantha's due date was August 18th. We were really hoping she would come a week early because Sean was getting ready to start the new school year. My doctor stripped my membranes twice and we were hopeful but she did not come a week early. My doctor said that we would schedule a c-section if she was a week late so we just had to wait and see when she was ready to come. On Sunday the 14th, Sean decided that he would take the Subaru to school the next day. My sister Shantelle had barrowed it and had her car seats inside. Around 10pm we headed out to move them. As we came upstairs Shantelle who was in the kitchen turned and asked if my water broke. No, no it had not. She came outside and helped us move things around. As we stood outside talking, i felt some water gush. This happened three times and so i interrupted the conversation and said "um, either I just peed my pants or my water broke." The three of us spent the next 20 minutes trying to decide if it had. It is not how it happens in the movies!! Ultimately we decided that it would be better to go to the hospital now and be sent home than having to get up at 3 am in the morning and going. So, we loaded into the car and headed. On the way we saw Sonic and I really wanted a Diet Cherry Limeade but Sean said he would go get me one after we got checked in.

We arrived at the hospital and got checked in. They decided to do a check to see if for sure my water had broke since I wasn't completely sure. As I was laying on the hospital bed, the rest of my water came out. Yep, I was having a baby!! Having not gone through this before and having my only reference being TV, I was expecting her to come pretty soon. But, I was only dilated to a 3. The night passed, the morning came and went, and the afternoon came and went. I slowly progressed throughout the day and had lots of drugs pumped into me.

Finally around 5:30pm I was dilated enough to start pushing. So with the aid of the nurse and Sean, I had my legs in stirrups and pushed with the contractions. The epidural was starting to wear off so I could tell when the contraction was coming. After about twenty minutes of pushing, the doctor joined us, got everything ready and we were ready to go. It was really cool since I had the epidural and was not screaming the whole time. The four of us all chatted during the contractions and pushing. Sean and my doctor literally had a 20 minute conversation about sci-fi/fantasy books they were reading. Finally it came time to do the final pushing.

I have to say it was the most incredible experience of my life. It was so intense and hard to push harder but I gave it my all and then all the sudden we heard a cry. The doctor took the baby and plopped her on my stomach. Sean had already decided that he did not want to cut the umbilical cord but we didn't mention that to the doctor. All the sudden he was handing Sean the scissors and saying to cut here. Sean hesitated but the doctor told to go for it so he did.

The baby nurses were there and did there thing with her real quick and handed her back to us. Here is her first picture.
Here I am just admiring her. I can't believe she was there. 20 hours of labor and I now had this bundle of joy.
The nurse was nice enough to offer to take a picture for us. Here is our first family photo.Daddy's first moments with his little girl.My mom got off work around 5pm so instead of going all the way home she came to the hospital and hung out and waited. She is Sammy's first visitor.
Here she is sleeping. I took this one with my cell phone for facebook.Sean took this one with the cell phone while she took a nap laying on my chest.Here's a couple of pics of her in the basket cart thing they have them in. After a few hours they took her to the nursery so I could sleep and they could bathe her. When they brought her back she had this cute purple bow on.
We had a few visitors in the hospital though I forgot to take pictures of everyone. Shantelle and Josh came that night to see us. Throughout labor Shantelle kept texting us funny quotes. It was awesome. The next day we also had visits from Katie and Dave Collier and their girls, Celeste, and pictured below my Aunt Cindy. Sean was a little stressed the whole time because he was supposed to be in school at teacher meetings. Monday night he slept with me at the hospital but tuesday night I sent him home to get a good nights sleep because he was headed in to work Wednesday. He went into work and then came a picked us up from the hospital. Here is Samantha in her go home outfit. It is all newborn size clothes and were giant on her. Guess I need to get some premie outfits for a couple of weeks.Our family photo as we get ready to go home.