this lemon yogurt ain't half bad: Update for Auntie Kelsie

Fiona is sleeping at the moment, so I'm hoping I can get this thing updated a bit... Kelsie's really been getting on me about it. Sorry Kel. I've been a little busy.

I can't believe it's already been a week. Time is flying by in a ridiculous manner, especially when you compare to how EXCRUCIATINGLY long the week before that was.

I'm not gonna write out the entire birth story right now... I've actually got it started, in draft form, but it's going to be harder to write than I had originally expected. I will, however, give you a brief overview.

Wednesday, October 29th- Woke up to some mild, regular-ish contractions, and just felt kind of weird and different. Told Nate that I didn't want to get his hopes up, but to keep his phone with him just in case. I continued with my plans for the day, which included making a big pot of chili in the slowcooker, and baking some oatmeal chocolate chip craisin cookies, and taking a looooong (just over 3 miles) walk... things picked up, contraction-wise, a little before midnight. We called the doctor, he said to call him back when the contractions were 5 minutes apart for 2 hours. Around 3:00am we called, and headed to the hospital. Long story short- they sent us home. However, the nurse said she was pretty sure we'd be back within a day.

Thursday, October 30th- Came home from the hospital, feeling kind of stupid for going in at only 1cm with contractions that slowed up once they hooked me to the monitors. Everyone assured me that I shouldn't feel stupid. It didn't really make me feel better.
I had a doctor appointment scheduled for Thursday at 10:15, they wanted to hook me up to the monitors for a non-stress test and check the baby's movement to make sure she was still doing ok in there even though I was, at this point, 9 days overdue by their count.

By the time I got to the doctors office, I had been having increasingly strong contractions, at fairly regular intervals, since about 8:00am. I got all hooked up to the monitors, had to lie there on the table, and press a little button every time I felt the baby move. She was pretty quiet, but the contractions were not. Eventually the doctor came in and checked me- I was at 4cm, the baby's head was at zero station, and I was definitely in active labor at this point. So he sent us off to the hospital.

We got to the hospital around noon, got me up to the room and all situated, annnnd fast forward about 5 and a half hours of crazy, intense, pain that I won't go into now...and they're putting this baby on my chest and telling me that "It's a girl!"

It's a what? A girl? Really? A girl?!?! I was so sure it was gonna be a boy! A girl? Ohmygod Nate, we have a girl! It's a girl!

And so Fiona Jeanne entered the world. Nate cut the cord, and went over and watched as they cleaned her up and weighed her and put that goop in her eyes and all that good stuff.

And now its a week later. It's also now about 6 hours, a billion feedings, bout 5 diaper changes, 2 naps, and 1 momma meltdown after I started writing this entry. I think I'll quit while I'm ahead and post what I've got, rather than try and get into the amazing cuteness that has been the past week. I'll just throw a few pictures up here and call it a day.

(amanda)

41 weeks pregnant and on the way out the door to the hospital-