Happy Birthday Eden!

An hour after the doctor told us Christine was at 9 cm, it was time to push! We couldn’t believe how fast we got to that point. The nurse came in and prepared the room while she was explaining every little thing she did. The next thing I knew, the nurse was explaining to Christine the directions for pushing the baby out. Pushing actually proved to be a little bit of a challenge since Christine couldn’t feel anything in her legs, but she soon got the hang of it. After only about half an hour of pushing, Eden Cassie came into the world!

Born on August 3, 2008 at 2:04pm, Eden weighed in at 6 lbs. 10 oz. and was 19.5 inches long. She is an absolutely beautiful little girl and is recovering nicely. It all happened so fast I couldn’t really think too much about what was going on while it was happening. I just remember looking over as Christine’s mom was crying. Angella An, who was also in the delivery room, was squealing with excitement. The next thing I knew, I had a daughter! I was actually more concerned about how Christine was doing because the doctor was cleaning her up and getting her stitched. He looked at me and said, “You know, you can go see your daughter.” That’s when the first emotion hit me. I was proud of Christine. I remember just looking at her and feeling so proud that she was able to deliver our baby.

Even now as I am sitting in the recovery room with Christine and Eden both sleeping near me, I can’t really say the emotions have sunk in. It’s weird thinking that the baby’s mine. I keep thinking her parents are going to come soon and pick her up as if I’m just watching her for a while. It’s just awesome to think I’m a dad. It’s even weird to type those words, “I’m a dad.” =)

Our All Nighter

Christine’s been feeling contractions off and on for the past couple of days, but last night they got a lot more intense. We got to bed at around midnight and by 1:00am she was up and in the shower because of the frequency of the contractions. We counted contractions until about 2:30am and that’s when we left for the hospital.

When we arrived at triage, it was a bit disappointing for us both to find out that she was only at about 2.5 cm. But they told us that the doctor said she could be admitted anyway. They just had us walk the hallways for about two hours. By the time we got back to triage, she was at 3 cm. At this point, the contractions were about a minute or two apart and the pain was pretty intense, so they wheelchaired her up to her room.

Once we got to the room, after the initial paperwork and stuff, they got the anesthesiologist to put in an epidural. That really helped alleviate the pain pretty quickly and we were able to get some sleep. Four hours later, they checked again and Christine was at 6 cm. They let us know they started her on pitocin and that really got the labor going. An hour later, she was at 9 cm.

By the way, the nurses and doctors at Mary Birch are really awesome.

That’s where we are so far. We’re taking a little break. Christine’s trying to rest. We’ve got George Winston playing in the background. And I’ve had a chance to update the brain so I don’t forget all this. =) It’s crazy to think that Christine will be pushing soon and Eden will be here in no time! How exciting!