Cosette Elisabeth

What a day! We're so excited to announce the birth of our first DAUGHTER: Cosette Elisabeth Hobbs! I was scheduled for an induction on Monday due to gestational diabetes. Of course, I got BUMPED until Wednesday. I'm in too much of a good mood now to re-live the disappointment of Monday and Tuesday, but suffice it to say, I was one grumpy pregnant lady!

I began harassing Labor & Delivery last night by calling to make sure I was on the schedule and quizzing them on how many inductions they had scheduled today. They assured me that there was only one other mom on the schedule. I let them know I would race her for a room and if I could, I would camp out in the hall all night! LOL! After lining up sitters, packing the bags (again), and enjoying a wonderful dinner brought by a friend, I settled down for the night. My sweet husband slept on the couch so I could have the bed to myself with all seven pillows! I set the alarm early, took a shower, and called L&D extra early to find out what time to come in. They said 7:30 and again, I quizzed them on the number of empty rooms, etc. Since I was already showered and packed and it was only 6am, I finished up the blessing afghan. Blake woke up and spent 45 minutes chatting with me and pulling my string for me. What a sweetie. Oh and did I mention I was having contractions?

Anyway, around 6:45 I got the last few things ready and headed to the hospital nice and early! Of course I freaked out when all the 'expectant moms' parking spots were full! Thankfully, as I walked into L&D, I noticed lots of empty rooms and was promptly deposited in one. Travis stayed behind to get the kiddos on the bus while I got settled. I was hooked up to an IV pretty quickly after I laid out my strict birth plan: feel as little pain as possible! My contractions were 2-6 minutes apart on their own, and they started pitocin around 9am. Just as the contractions were getting uncomfortable (10am), my dr came in to check me and break my water. I was at a 2 and the fluid was clear, so she okay'ed the epidural and headed to her first c-section. By then Travis had come and was there to help me get my epi.

The epidural was the best ever! Not only did I get it quickly (by 10:30), it took on both sides (usually I'm just numb on the right). Trav and I settled in to wait as they upped the pitocin. They had a great radio in the room and I listened to classical music while Trav crapped around on my laptop. The nurse came back around 1:30 to check me since she noticed the baby's heartrate moving around. Baby had descended pretty well and I was at a six! Since Dr. Kang was headed to another c-section, we thought we'd be just fine. Well, things never go as planned, right? Pretty soon, I started to feel a lot of pressure. Things escalated and I finally paged the nurse to let her know that big things were about to happen!

She checked me around 2:10 and I was complete! And boy, I could tell I was: the pressure was incredible and I could literally feel the baby coming. My epidural was great, so I didn't feel the contractions, just the pressure. The nurse quickly ran out to find the doctor, who was still in surgery and had to page the back-up dr who was shopping at Costco! LOL! I was trying to hold it together through the contractions and had decided that the baby would be here by 2:30. Travis did a great job holding my hand and distracting me from the bone-splitting pressure for the next few minutes until the dr. arrived. The contractions were really close together and the nurse hurried to set up the room for baby's arrival.

Finally, at about 2:22, the Dr came in, threw on a gown and had me push. With the first contraction, the baby came the rest of the way down, and on the 2nd contraction we had a girl! We paused half-way through to suction her mouth and I couldn't believe it when the dr said to open my eyes because she was here! I was so relieved and sure enough, it was 2:27. Baby Cosette cried right away and pinked up as the nurse laid her on my chest. After cutting the cord, they rubbed her down for a few minutes and then Travis got to hold her right away. He was so sweet cuddling her and keeping her warm for the next few minutes while I finished up the delivery. Even though Cosette was 9lbs 3 ozs (and my biggest previous baby was 7lb 14 oz), I didn't tear or require any stitches. Yay! She is 21.5 inches long. And I have to say, I teared up when they pulled out the PINK bracelets for Travis and I. She's really a girl!!!

Our little Cosette was very alert over the next hour with us, nursing and looking around the whole time! She wanted to eat, eat, eat and cried if she had to stop. After an hour, she went to the nursery while I ate a delicious lunch and got some pain meds. Now we've been transfered to a really quiet room and she's back with me, sleeping and happy. Her blood sugars were great and everything looks wonderful. We're so excited to have a nice birth and a healthy little girl. We'll try to get some better pictures later, but here's what I have so far:

I'm finally here!

Our biggest baby yet! She has the cutest cry.

She's finally in my arms!

Rockin' the PINK wristband!

Daddy's little girl.

I'm so glad things went well today. Labor was less than 6 hours from when they started pitocin, and was about as painless as possible. As far as recovery, the pain meds are working well and I'm feeling pretty good so far. I'm enjoying our nice quiet room way in the back of the birth center and waiting for Travis to show up with the boys so they can meet their sister for the first time. And a big thank-you to Denise and Regan for help with babysitting today. It's just been the best day ever.