She's a Girl! 19 inches and 7.5lbs!

So baby Faye is six days old and she's already throwing Mom and Dad for a loop! Sarah woke me up Saturday morning (July 31, 2010) after she had been having contractions for a little while. We timed them for about 3 hours and decided it was time to go to the hospital around 4am. Once we got to the hospital, they checked Sarah and she was 3cm dialated but they said she was kind of on the line that the draw between admission into the hospital and sending you back home. Sweet sweet Sarah was so nice that whenever she had a contraction, she'd apologize to the nurses because "It was a bad one". They looked at her like she had two heads. Needless to say, the nurses really came to like her quite a bit and fought for her to get admitted.

They had Sarah and I walk the halls to try and progress things so they could admit her. After a half hour of walking, they came back in and she had only dilated half a centimeter more or so. The nurses had come to like Sarah so much, they just admitted her anyway around 5:30 am.

During this whole process, a nurse here and there would ask us "Do you know what you're having?" We'd answer "A boy!" Then the conversation would go something like this:
Nurses: "Great/Awesome/How precious! Who's your doctor?"
We: "Dr. Cazes"
Nurses: "Don't hold your breath on the sex, then!"
We:

I guess Dr. Cazes is playfully known at the Hospital to mess up the sex the most of all the Doctors at the hospital. I guess Sarah knew for a while that "Liam" was really "Faye" because she would always refer to "him" as "her" and even confessed this little hunch to the nurses when we first arrived.

So after we were admitted at around 5:30 AM, Sarah received an epidural. A side-note to all those who will ever have children...GET-AN-EPIDURAL. To the husbands: Plead with your wife to get an epidural. Beg her. Offer her a thousand-coupon book of honey-do's! Do anything you must, but get that epidural! Wives: If you want to be in pain for 1 minute out of every 3 for 12-18 straight hours, that's your prerogative. But if you want to sit and visit with your families and watch those contractions spike on the monitor pain-free, get-the-epidural!

In all seriousness - Do some research yourself before you make the decision to "go natural" or not (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20499499, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20409118, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20232698 are just a few suggestions. Seriously, search it out!)

So Sarah continued her labor for the next 10-11 hours or so in peace. No heavy panting, no immense pains...just calm, easy-going labor. Her family came to visit us a couple of hours before the delivery. That was nice. When it got close to 5:30 pm, they made their way down to the lobby to way for the big moment. We got ready for the long haul in the delivery room. They say that the average time spent pushing for a first-time delivery is around two hours. Sarah pushed like a mother and got-her-dun in 30 minutes! My wife's a machine!

Before we started pushing, I jokingly said to Dr. Cazes, "You know...If he doesn't come out a boy, I'm going to personally hold you responsible!" He chuckled and said "We were pretty sure it was a boy, though right?" I responded, "Yeah you were quite sure, you did mention the possibility of the umbilical cord getting twisted and creating the illusion of a boy during the ultrasound."

Sarah pushed hard during each contraction for about a half hour and our baby was here! Dr. Cazes held up our baby girl and exclaimed "It WAS the umbilical cord!" After the initial surprise, I grinned and whispered to Sarah, "She's a girl!" Seeing that healthy baby girl crying there as they cleaned her off on Sarah's stomach with 10 healthy little fingers and 10 healthy little toes was such a huge relief.



So baby Faye is with us now and she's so amazing! It's awesome to have this little one bring in her unique little Spirit to brighten our home. Sarah and I felt like a family before, but we feel even more complete now. I'm waiting for the moment that this all gets really hard. Everyone keeps assuring us that it will come. But for right now, it's just a simple routine of feeding her, changing her, putting her to bed for 2-3 hours and doing it all over again. Parenting is a Breeze! ;)