The Princess has arrived!

Baby Sadie

Born November 20th 2010 at 6:58am

Measuring 20 inches

Weighing 6 lbs 11 oz

We are so incredibly grateful for this beautiful healthy baby we brought into this world. It's been two months since our little girl made her appearance and it has been the most wonderful (and exhausting) two months of our lives. It has been so exciting to watch her grow and we are so excited about the weeks, months, years ahead.

Birth story:

Contractions started Friday at about 5pm (one week overdue). I was having a lot of Braxton Hicks contractions with menstrual type pains for weeks leading up to this but these contractions had a new kind of pain/pressure so I was pretty sure this was it! I laboured at home for a few hours got some things done around the house then drove into the city and spent a couple hours at my in-laws. I used a TENS machine which helped in the beginning. Went into the hospital at 11pm. Should have gone earlier! Contractions were so painful at this point- TENS didn't do a thing. I was 4 cm dilated and got my own room fairly quickly. Asked for epidural right away but it was going to take a while for him to get there. Tried laughing gas, only made me dizzy. I wasn't going to try narcotics because of my reaction to Demerol but I couldn't take the pain so I got Fentanyl. This took the edge off and with the TENS the pain was bearable. It took a very long time to get the epidural. Finally got it and it took ALL of the pain away. I was able to get some sleep and woke up to nurses scurrying about. Baby's heart rate dropped. She had a bowel movement. Waters broke when they examined me and baby at this point. My doctor was then called because it was time to push. Baby's heart rate returned to normal. Doctor arrived, did some pushing but because of the drop in heart rate and the meconium dr, wanted her out faster so she used the vacuum for a few pushes. Baby was out half an hour later, at 6:58 am. The umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck twice! Didn't cause any problems though - Dr said this was common. Labour lasted 14 hours total. I remember being wide awake for the delivery, I remember seeing her for the first time and holding her but the following hours were a blur. I next remember waking up feeling like I was hit by a bus! Wow! I must have skipped over the postpartum sections of all the books I read because I did not anticipate the recovery period! Wowza. Took a good two weeks to feel okay on my feet. Thank goodness for my superman husband who did so much during those first two weeks!