She's here

As most of you already know, Ayla Jeanette was born on April 17 at 8:53 AM at 6 pounds and 17 inches.

For the long version

On Friday my Dr. decided that she wanted to go ahead and induce labor so my choices were today, tomorrow, or Monday. Most other thoughts stopped at the word induce and I told her I couldn't say just yet until I talked to Nick. Well, of course he couldn't answer the phone when I called at that time so I told her we'd go ahead and plan for Monday. Talked to Nick on his lunch break and we decided to go with the next day.

Called the Dr. to let her know and was told 5:45 am to be at the hospital. Called my parents to let them know and my Mom was on the road within hours - a 12 hour drive give or take. Called Nick's mom and our friend Ellen so that we would have someone to watch Ben while we were at the hospital. Stopped in at work to let them know to take me off the schedule for a while. Realized how much was still left to do, so we did some cleaning and a little bit of prep work. Got another call from the Dr. the time was now 5:00 am, so that meant both of us would have to be up at 4-430.

Grammie and Ellen both got to our house that evening and Ben was so excited to have everyone there and it took a little bit longer to get him to go to sleep. My Mom got in about 3 in the morning and had just started to get settled in when Nick and I had to get up and start getting ready.

We got there and luckily the nurse only needed one try at the I.V. (they stuck my 5 times with Ben and the I.V. ended up in the side of my wrist) and got the pictocin started about 5:30. I was a little worried because of the stories you hear about it taking over 24 hours to deliver a baby with an induction, but I was hoping that already being dilated a little would help. I got in the tub and that was the easiest part. I did ask for something to help take a little bit of the edge off and was at 6-7 at that point. Nick notified the mothers and they started to get moving, but they did have to deal with Ben so it was a slow process. It got a lot worse very quickly and Nick had picked up the phone to call again to let them know it would been soon and was told They can wait get over here. Less than 5 minutes of pushing Ayla was born. I went ahead and called the house and let them know "we have baby" which kinda surprised everyone. NO ONE was expecting less than 4 hours of labor, but I'll take it.

They let us go home Sunday, which I was really happy about, it's a nice hospital but it's still a hospital. We also learned to make sure the infant seat fits in the vehicle before you choose one. The baby fit in Nick's truck but Mommy wouldn't, so I ended up coming home with my mother while Nick brought Ayla home.

Ben has warmed up to her very well. He'll bring you the diapers and burp rags. He does not like it if she's fussing or crying and makes sure you know she is. So it looks like we might have a break before any sibling rivalry comes into play.