Announcing the birth

I am proud to announce the birth of our beautiful baby girl. But first:

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THE STORY

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Around 9:00, Beth sent me a text that she thought she might be having contractions 7 minutes apart. I replied back asking if she was still in bed and she said she was getting up to take a shower. She then sent one asking if amniotic fluid was clear or yellowish. I told her I thought clear and to let me know when she was out of the shower. In the meantime I googled and found that generally it's clear, but can be other colors.

When she got out of the shower she called and she said the contractions had went away once she got up and that what she had leaking was yellowish. So I told her she could call the doctor if she wanted a better answer. In the mean time, I went on with work as I figured it was just false labor and urine leaking, but just in case, I decided to have my Friday meeting with my boss earlier rather than later. I was only in his office about 5 minutes when one of the secretaries came in and said "Dan, you need to call Beth, her water broke. She just called." So I quickly headed to my desk and called Beth back and as everyone looked on asking "Is it time?" shut down my computer and headed out. When I got home, I literally ran into the building and to the elevator.

On the way to the hospital, Beth had a couple of contractions but they were irregular and stopped once we got to the birth center. The nurse checked and said her bag did break but they couldn't tell which part of the baby was presenting because Beth was hardly dilated and the cervix and the baby were still very high up. Because of the risk of a prolapsed cord, she had to stay in bed. When the Dr. checked her, she confirmed that Natalia was head down, so we could proceed with labor and hoping for a vaginal birth, but there were still some decent chances that we may have to have a c-section.

We started pitocin and contractions finally started around 12-12:30, but remained irregular. By 5:00 they were pretty intense and Beth went for the stadol (as opposed to an epidural). That helped for nearly 2 hours and then she needed another dose. By 9:30 or so, they checked her and she was at 5cm. She was able to hold off on another dose of pain medicine for a little bit, but soon after was having a hard time and felt the urge to push. We convinced her to hold off and paged the nurse. The nurse was going to get the Dr. to see if she could have another dose, but when she heard that Beth felt the urge to push, she checked and found that she was fully dilated at 10 cm. So instead of more pain medicine she prepped for pushing and got the Dr. Beth's mother and I held her legs and counted for her and with probably only about 15 minutes of pushing Beth delivered our beautiful baby girl. Beth of course immediately turned to smiles and didn't appear to feel an ounce of pain and I broke down into an emotional wreck at the joy and beauty of this new life.

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THE DETAILS

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Natalia Rachel Harkness

Born: 2/19/10 at 10:34 PM

Weight: 5 lb 14 oz.

Length: 18.9 inches

Hair: Very little, appears to be blonde

Pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com/harkyfam/BabyNataliaAtBirth?authkey=Gv1sRgCNbkpM232enkiQE&feat=directlink

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THE PRAISE

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I would like to give praise to God for watching over Beth and Natalia during this delivery, for keeping Beth strong and giving her endurance, and for both mother and baby being healthy. I praise him for the incredible gifts he has given me: salvation and 2 amazing women (ok, 1 woman, 1 baby girl). Your work is beautiful.

I would like to praise Beth for being amazing. Your strength and determination were incredible. I knew that you could do it and your ability to fight through the pain without giving in to the epidural was great. I knew that you had it in you and am so proud of you. When you were pushing you were phenomenal. I also thank you for not biting off my head for getting you pregnant and putting in all that pain. I am amazed by you and in awe of your capabilities. I know you are going to make an amazing mother and can't wait to experience this journey together.

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THE THANKS

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Again, I must start off with God. Thank you for protecting my wife and baby girl and bringing them through this with good health. Thank you for my wife and our baby girl.

Thank you to Beth for being so strong and for giving me the gift of a baby girl.

Thank you to Beth's parents for being there and providing support throughout the labor and delivery.

Thank you to all of you who prayed for us and sent their wishes.

Thank you to Natalia for finally coming out and meeting us and for being so little so that you could make it a bit easier for your mommy.