It's true, Baby West #2 has made her entrance into the world AND has an official name. All 3 of us are just in love with her. She is such a sweet, easy going baby so far.
She's actually been here for 10 days, and we've been home for a week now. She missed being born on her due date by 3 1/2 hours, so her official birth day is Thursday, July 12 at 3:30 am.
I went into labor the evening of my due date, but didn't really believe it was real labor, as I'd already had three false alarms, the last being basically the day before, early Tuesday morning. And I really thought it was real labor. I even called my mom to drive to Houston to watch Charlotte! But the contractions petered out right about the time she got here. She decided to stay, as we were all soooo sure that labor was just around the corner, and we went to the zoo to entertain Charlotte and ourselves. I walked the whole zoo. Nothing happened. The next day,Wednesday, Paige's due date, I had a doctor's appointment in the afternoon, so we went walking at the mall in the morning to help the process along. Much to my surprise, my doctor checked and told me I had not progressed since the previous week. So we gave up the notion of labor happening any time soon, and my mom decided to return home and go to work (in order to save up her vacation time). She left right after the appointment, around 4:30 pm.
Koby and I were going stir crazy with all this waiting for labor, and I decided to go run some errands to occupy my mind. Well, wouldn't you know, as I'm walking around Micheal's and Target, gathering craft supplies for my moms' group, I keep having contrations? I kept chalking them up to the check at the doctor's office. I got home and we went to our small group. The whole time we're having bible study, I'm having contractions, but again, after three false alarms, you feel silly saying this may be the real thing. We walked home and I lay down on the couch and began to time the contratctions while Koby gave Charlotte her bath and put her to bed. They went from 7 minutes apart, to 6, to a steady 5, and they began to hurt a bit. I called my parents' house about 10, a mere 3 hours after my mom made it home, to let them know she should probably drive back up here in the morning. Isn't that always the way it goes? We sent her home just to have her drive back up. Of course, if she had stayed, I probably wouldn't have gone into labor for another week.
We checked into the hospital at 11:45 and got to the delivery room about midnight. The rest of the story is almost identical to Charlotte's birth. For those who don't know, Charlotte was an emergency C-section. This time I really wanted to try for a regular birth. But it was not to be. The more I dilated, the more Paige's heart rate dropped. Finally, right about the time it was time to push, her heart rate dropped very low and never recovered. The contractions were just too strong. The doctor had me get in some crazy positions to hopefully help her, but none of them made the slightest difference. So they gave me a shot of medicine to stop the contractions and whisked me down to the OR, where Paige was born. At least this time Koby was there to witness the birth! She came out at a perfectly healthy 6 lbs 4.5 oz, 20 inches long at 3:34 am, Thursday morning.
The recovery from the section has been so much easier this time around, just like everyone told me it would be. I thought I'd be a bit bummed about another c-section, but really, I couldn't care less. Paige is here and is wonderful and beautiful. In the end, that's all that matters, I suppose!
Unfortunately, we have no pictures of her birth. In the rush to the OR, our camera and phones were completely forgotten. She was a bit camera-shy afterwards - Koby couldn't get a good shot of her face while she was in the nursery. (Which of course drove me absolutely nuts as I was laying in recovery, wondering who had come out of me!)
