Delaney Abigail Readling, 2/19/11

Finally!!!!





8 Pounds, 3 Ounces


 

Not Sure How I feel About Baths

Daddy!

Mommy!

Uncle Shawn, Aunt Sarah and Daddy

First Diaper. I did it all by myself

Tooooooooooooo Cute

Live from the delivery room...

It seems as though everyone should have picked Feb. 19 in the baby pool. We've been here at Martin Memorial since 5 a.m. when Melissa couldn't take it anymore and decided she needed to have someone confirm that she was, indeed, suffering through the beginnings of labor. After an entire night of contractions and kneeling in front of the toilet and everything else labor includes, she just needed confirmation.

Her contractions were 3 to 6 minutes apart and they told her go "out to walk for an hour". That's hospital-speak for there's nothing we can do, and you may as well go home, but we're not going to tell you to go home. So, she put on her clothes to go walk and her water immediately broke. If anyone ever asks what it sounds like when your water breaks, it goes something like this: Oh Shit.

She was admitted and we got the whole labor experience, complete with contractions strong enough to bring tears to her eyes, fingernail marks in my arm and even a short bath. Nothing worked. And Melissa was a very unhappy camper.

Then the doctor showed up at 9:30, decided she was 4 cm and allowed her to have the epidural. That, too, brought tears to her eyes, even though they were very different kinds of tears. Joy filled the room!

I got to leave for 30 minutes while they set up the epidural, so I walked downtown and got some iced tea. When I got back to the room, Melissa was a totally different person. I mean, she was NICE!! She was smiley. Talkative. Personable. I think we should ALL get epidurals at least once a week. I'm thinking peace in the Middle East kind of stuff. And, judging by what I'v seen this morning, that's well within reach.

It's now 12:36 p.m. and she is 9/10 of the way there. Snoring through contractions and now eating Lemon Ice while half of Central Florida rushes to be at her side. Lots of family headed this way.

It's gonna be an interesting afternoon. You'll thank me for not posting any pictures with this blog.

Keep you posted...

The Final Countdown

What Week 39.5 looks like

This is what Melissa's feet look like. I put this here so she
could refer back to confirm that she does, indeed, have
feet. She hasn't seen them in months.

All right, this is going to be quick and painless, much like Melissa hopes labor is going to be sometime in the next week. Here are a couple pictures of Melissa, Week 39.5. The due date is Saturday. Today's day is Tuesday. That means only a couple more nights (at the most) of irregular sleep, overall discomfort and general amounts of unrest. Kinda like Egypt last week, now that I think about it.
 Oh, that's right, it doesn't mean that all. It just means that all of that is about to be cranked up. Times five! At least we have our practice.
Here are a couple pictures. Perhaps the final pictures of Melissa with baby, as opposed to baby with Melissa.
For the record, Valentine's Day is past and her worst nightmare of having a Valentine's Day baby is past. So, foot rubs are now allowed and she even went out for spicy wings tonight, all with the hopes of getting things started. Too bad she failed on the spicy wings part and ordered Gold Rush sauce, which isn't spicy at all. Even to a -1 week old.

What you should look like when you eat spicy wings.