Birth

Just getting settled in and calling family to let them know we're at the hospital

Labor/Delivery rooms at YRMC are nice and spacious as well as fully prepared.

We had been hoping this would be where Katie would first arrive but life had other plans in store for us.

Mirrors weren't positioned well enough for me to use them for any pre-family portraits...but the TV was rather reflective.

Actually came out better than I expected it to...

And once I moved the spare IV stand out of the way it wasn't much worse than my cell phone does :)

Amy got hooked up to the monitors but Katie was doing her exercises and driving the nurses crazy trying to keep the sensors over her.

It was almost like she didn't want us to hear her!

After about 8-10 hours of trying to Ripen Amy's cervix her blood pressure started to go up and they had to put her on Magnesium Sulfate and confine her to the bed. Unfortunately that made Amy very hot, woozy and ill. And apparently Katie didn't like it either because her heart rate dipped down to 30 BPM twice causing the nurses to put Amy on Oxygen and call the doctor.

The doctor said the risks were too high, we'd have to go with a c-section which Amy had been hoping to avoid.

They brought me scrubs...but no one was available to help me get a photo of myself...and they dimmed the lights to make Amy more comfortable making it tough to use the only mirror for a self-portrait.

But at least I tried!

The Anesthesiologist was very friendly and comforting. He did an outstanding job of putting Amy at ease and getting her epidural in place. She barely even noticed and didn't believe it went so quickly.

She still wasn't feel good or happy at this point though.

Still getting her plumbed in.

Waiting for things to start going numb.

And trying not to think about what was coming up.

Starting to go numb.

About to head off to the OR.

Dad had to wait out in the hall listening to Amy throw up. He took photos of the dents in the wall directly across from the door to the OR to keep his mind off things while telling himself they were from people being rushed in and not out of the OR.

Attempting to take self-portraits in between prayers.

hard to focus when you're on the wrong side of your own lens.

This was one of the least fun things I've ever done.

But this one was one of the happiest!

Good thing the nurse two too, the second came out much better! Hello Katelynn!

Dad torments Katie with the camera while waiting in the baby holding area for mom to get sewn up.

She was already fighting the swaddle and hat. Thankfully under the baby warmer this wasn't a big deal!

And time to do some evaluations. She wasn't really screaming or crying..just making lots of happy sounding little noises. It just looks like she was doing a howler monkey impersonation.

Onto the scales for her big moment.

So much for baby modesty.

6lbs 4.8oz which was officially rounded up to 6lbs 5oz...almost the same as her daddy 35 years ago. But digital scales are a lot easier to read in photos!

Yep, almost as embarrassing as the same shot of her dad. Save this one for future boyfriends.

Theresa the nurse was very friendly and supportive of a still nervous dad who was trying to focus on his wonderful baby instead of worrying about his amazing wife.

More measurements.

yep, its a head.

34cm chest.

Icky meconium spit. Get that stuff out of here!

My precious....must have precious.....(don't worry she looks more human and less like Gollum now!)

Really, she looked very happy most of the time. But like her parents didn't seem big on the camera being shoved in her face!

Invasion of the giant stethoscope!

Little happier looking

She liked sticking her tongue out at dad.

Baby's first bath....too bad the light was pretty darn dim.

Hey, she looks like she's almost enjoying it!

Bye bye birth goo!

Clean and fresh and chilling under the warmer. So that's why they call this place "baha" for short. Like the beach for baby!