Baby Geneva is HERE!

Our little girl made her arrival on Saturday June 30th, 2012. This last week has been a bit of a blur, but a wonderful one nonetheless. Geneva is a good little baby who loves to sleep, is great at breastfeeding, loves to eat her hands, has long fingers and toes, a cute pointy chin, brown hair, and big grayish-blue eyes. We're excited to see if they turn blue or brown.

And now for the birth story. We were anxiously awaiting Geneva's arrival all week since her due date was June 24th. On Friday the 29th I went in to the doctor's office and found out I was dilated to 2cm and 70% effaced, and had my membranes stripped. We also scheduled an induction for Monday July 2nd, but I was really hoping she would come naturally sometime over the weekend. Well I got my wish because just after going to bed on Friday night at 12:45, I started having regular contractions. I'd been having irregular contractions for the past week or so, but these immediately felt different. They were about 10 minutes apart, and then 5 minutes apart at 1:30. Since I wanted to try natural childbirth and we live really close to the hospital, I wanted to labor at home for as long as possible. The contractions stayed pretty steady at 3-5 minutes apart and at about 6:00 we decided to go to the hospital.

We got all checked in and found out I was already dilated to 6cm. The contractions were really intense by this point, and I decided that I'd rather have an epidural as I was feeling pretty exhausted. It's amazing how slow everyone seems when you're in labor. It felt like it took FOREVER to get checked into my room, get an IV, and start getting enough fluid to be able to get the epidural. Before the anesthesiologist arrived, I started to get the urge to push. The nurses checked and lo and behold, I was at a 10 and the idea of an epidural was out the window. I even remember the anesthesiologist pop in and then out just as I was starting to push. I ended up pushing for 2 hours before our little girl made her appearance. They immediately brought her up and put her on my chest for skin-to-skin contact. She stayed there for over an hour and I was able to breastfeed and just hold her. It was really great to not feel rushed and just have some peace with our baby before all the weighing and measuring.

Getting some skin to skin time right after birth

 Let me just say that childbirth really is pretty amazing. I still look at Geneva and think what a miracle she is. And what a miracle it is that she came out of me.

Being weighed and proving to us the strength of her lungs

Final stats:

Born 9:39am, June 30th, 2012

6 lb 14 oz

19.5 inches

With a proud daddy :)

Swaddled and sitting up

Cute little legs

After her first bath

Sleeping soundly, even with flash photography

Well this blog will probably now deteriorate into being devoted to this little girl. I can't help it if she's the most adorable baby in the world and all our family lives far away and needs to see pictures.