The obligatory birth story

Alana Mae Hwa
born March 26th 3:33 pm
7 lbs 5 ozs 17 inches

The actual story isn't very interesting. Since I was getting induced, I didn't know the time until the night before. I got a call telling me I was fourth on the on call list and that they'd probably get me in before noon, but no guarantees. I was a little peeved and expecting not to get until the afternoon. However I got a call at eight in the morning telling me to get to the hospital by nine thirty. We packed everything quickly, arranged care for Liam and headed off to the hospital. It took about an hour to get all the paper work taken care and to get my first iv (you have to be infused with at least a liter before they can give you the pitocin, or more importantly, the epidural. The pitocin was hooked up at eleven and I got my water broken and epidural (yay!) about an hour and a half after that. I was never in much discomfort. With Liam I was in labour for over ten hours and remember being bored for most of that so I packed Trivial Pursuit for this time around. The nurse was very amused and would ask who was winning everytime she came in. I'm very proud to say that despite contractions and not being able to feel my legs, I won. Justin and I were two rounds into Phase 10 when I started to feel like I needed to push which surprised me because I had been measuring only 5 cm the hour before. We called the nurse, and sure enough she was ready to come out. I pushed through two contractions and she popped out with no problems. Lovely APGAR scores of 8 & 9 and lots of hair. Looking at the above picture I'm realizing how much she does look like Liam, which is fine and dandy with me. We're all doing well and she's already manipulating us into holding her when she's asleep.

People are wondering how Liam is adjusting. He's actually doing pretty well. He loves other kids and always has. Liam understands the touch with one finger rule (but alas, he also knows he can poke) and loves to pat her on the head while she's nursing. He also likes to rock the moses basket-a little hard but we're getting there. I think the above picture captures his general attitude.