Well, Baby Reagin was due today. She must have known how excited we were to meet her, because she decided to make her dramatic entrance into the world 5 days early!
In case you haven't heard yet (or read the new blog title), her name is Charlotte Avery Reagin - and we are calling her Avery.
After staying up late last sunday night to write the previous post, Katie woke up at 4:00am with some early (and ambiguous) labor signs. At 5:00am, her contractions started like someone flipped a switch. They began at 3-5 minutes apart and 45-60 seconds long. We didn't know what to make of them, since they didn't start small and spread out. We called our Doula Tracey, and she told us to get some rest.
It's hard to sleep in 5 minute increments...
At 8:00am we gave up trying to sleep, the contractions were still coming like clockwork. We made another round of phone calls, including a few to Nana (who had to get here from the Sarasota, FL, area), and were instructed to head North for confirmation of labor. Katie hung in admirably for the hour+ it took to make it to Forsyth - it seemed like we hit each bump on the highway during contractions.
At 10:30am, the Midwife confirmed that we were 3-4cm dialated, 100% effaced, and this baby would be here by 5:00pm. She gave us a few options - Labor here, walk around a mall, go home (NO WAY), or head to the hospital. "But, you should check into the hospital within two hours..." We decided to head back out to the car, make about 20 phone calls, and meet Doula Tracey at the hospital at 11:30am.
I am going to skip a bunch of details about laboring at the hospital - if you really want to hear about them, we'll be happy to share. Here are the highlights - Katie only labored at the hospital for four hours; she had a completely natural childbirth; and all the people in the delivery room were very vocal about how calm and serene a birth it had been (this is not to say that it was an easy childbirth, just that we had the perfect state of mind for dealing with it). We are very grateful for the mantra that our friend Satish gave to us, which got us through each and every single contraction.
The hospital stay was good - our dear friends, Dusty and Kelly, joined us in the postpartum wing during the wee hours of Wednesday morning. Their son Liam was born on St. Patty's Day. He and Avery got a photo-op in the nursery side-by-side before we checked out on Wednesday. You can really see what a difference 2+ lbs makes!
We got home on Wednesday night. Avery and Momma have been teaching each other about breastfeeding. And we are all learning how to sleep (day, night, during commercial breaks, whatever). Thank goodness that Avery's Nana (Katie's Mom) has been here to help us cope and keep our bellies full.
That's good for now, we need to go grab a nap before the mid-late-evening-feeding. We'll post a link to the Picasa album for more picture goodness once we get it all assembled.
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