12/29/07... What a difference a year makes...

So we rested... Michele better than me because she was dosed. A couple hours, and then it was back at it. The doctor on duty (I think our third at this point) said that she was making good progress. Dilated to 8cm. 10 is the goal. The doctor almost just pulled the trigger on the C-section, but the nurse who had been with us, fighting, the whole night convinced her to give us a couple more hours to do it naturally.

Nurses change shifts.
The sun rises.
Doctors change shifts.

New doctor checks Michele's progress. Dilated 7cm. What? Huh? We are moving in the wrong direction. He suggests that we just go for the Caesarean and be through it. We take a few minutes to discuss it and decide to just get the baby out and finally meet him/her. I ask the doctor when this will all happen... and he says, "Umm, now. We have already started prepping her." I run to the waiting room to tell everybody and run back. Michele is locked and loaded and I am suddenly putting on scrubs.

I'll spare some of the details.

Operating room. The doctor asks us for the twentieth time if we already know the sex... nope. "Well we're about to find out." We tell him that everybody thinks it's a girl. "Well... everybody is right!"

Brief pause and then... "Waaaaaaa!!!!" We see her quickly before she goes for tests across the room. So happy. So happy. Oh crap, what is her name going to be? We weren't 100% decided. The doctor suggests that I go and take a few photos with the digital camera so that Michele (still trussed up and being worked on) can see her. And then it is so obvious...

Alexandra Sabina.

This story continues tomorrow... but...

Fast forward to yesterday... what a difference. She walks. She says mama. She's working on some signing. And she'll eat most anything you put in front of her... apparently even birthday cake:



It took her a little while, but eventually she dove right in and make a mess just like we wanted.

Happy birthday baby!!