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!