So it turns out that shortly after I wrote the last post, Things Started Happening…and by 7:30pm, we were officially in labor and at the hospital.

I won’t go into great detail about this event (at least not tonight), but the initial diagnosis was that Beth would be kept overnight to see how things progressed. The likelihood at 7:30 of any baby coming before 9am or so the next morning wasn’t necessarily that great.

Funny thing that birthing process — it kinda decides how and when things happen.

By 11:30 (Tuesday evening), Beth had progressed to a 4 (cm). This from a 3 at 7:30 (and also on Monday afternoon). It was advised to get as much sleep as possible, so we both slept in the delivery room for about two hours, at which time (roughly 2:30am) things really started progressing. By about 3:30, we were looking to be around 6-8, and by 4am, Paige (nurse midwife) was being called to come in for a delivery. Lo and behold, at exactly 6:00am, Wednesday, March 14, 2007, Kirstin Lilly officially entered the world.

Beth was quite good at that whole labor thing. I have to admit I’m pretty sure I couldn’t have done it myself, but she really stuck it out and went with the flow (as much as can be expected for someone in that position). I know for a fact that I will always have far more memories about the labor and delivery process than she will (after all, I got to enjoy the process and the idle banter between nurses throughout the evening and morning), but Beth really hung in there and did exactly what everyone was telling her. Of course, it really helped to have an outstanding OB team on hand (those overnight folks are the best).

So anyway, in less than 11 hours from our arrival at the hospital, our little girl arrived. A big one, too — 8lbs, 3.5ozs and 20.5″ long. And about half of the time we spent there during that process was either spent sleeping or meandering through the ‘easier’ contractions of early active labor. So all in all, I don’t think anyone can complain. Everything went very smoothly, and everyone involved is doing very well this evening.

I created a photoset on Flickr just for Kirstin’s sake. There are a few more pictures at home than I’ve uploaded to Flickr, but I’ll add more as I get more that I want to put online. For the moment, there are only four, but I’ll bet that it won’t be that small for long.

We’ve had a pretty reasonable stream of people stopping by (or delivering items) throughout the day today. Nothing too overwhelming, but still enough to prevent getting too bored by sitting around, either. Also enough to keep Kirstin in Beth’s room for most of the day (except when Beth’s sleeping or when they take Kirstin’s vitals periodically, which they do in the nursery across the hall). I heard about that from the nurses, though. They all try to stop in if they can get an opportunity to. In fact, when I left the hospital tonight, all of the nurses at the station were passing her around. I sure don’t mind — nothing like having a social child. 🙂

I did find it quite interesting, though. When I stopped at the nurses station, one nurse was holding her and (they were all commenting). I joined in on the discussion, and [Kirstin] immediately turned in my direction after hearing my voice. I know she couldn’t see me, but it’s pretty interesting that in just the course of a few hours (14), she already recognized my voice. Crazy stuff.

Anyway, that’s about all for right now. I’m going to finally go get some sleep (that lasts longer than an hour or two). I’ve been home twice (three times if you include right now) since Beth went in last night, but not for very long either time (although this morning I came home to sleep for a little while and take a shower)…so it’ll be nice to get a relatively normal night’s sleep. Who knows, it could be the last one of those I have for a while…

–MZ