Guess I have to make an appearance

Though the role of the father in the delivery room is that of a glorified cheerleader, I guess I should post some pictures of me as well. Here's me and my beautiful baby girl.

Here is a picture of our fabulous delivery doctor Dr. Michael Kusic, myself, Sarah, Vanessa, and our wonderful nurse Linda.

More pictures and time for bed

So two more pictures and then I need to get some sleep. Here is Vanessa in her little crib at the end of Sarah's bed in the recovery room. I think this is right after I changed her diaper for the first time. Not sure she likes the hat though I think it's cute... ;)
I've got some great video I'd like to put somewhere, but I need to figure out how to compress it first and then find some storage space. Problem for another day. Thanks for all the support guys!

Labor details

So here are the gory labor details for those who are interested. Sarah got her pitocin dose done around 9:30 /10:00 AM. For those who don't know, pitocin is a medicine used to start or improve uterine contractions. A side effect of it though is that it makes those contractions much stronger than normal.

After not really showing any signs of labor, the doctor broke her water around 11:30 AM. Contractions started on 5 minute intervals after that. Eventually, Sarah gave birth at 4:14 PM without any narcotics, epidurals, or episiotomies. She did have a small tear that required some stitches, but other than that she was a real trooper. The doctors were amazed of how quickly her labor went and that she got her wish of au natural childbirth. Apparently it's really rare nowadays for a first time mother to do that. So many macho woman points to Sarah!

Vanessa and her helpers

Here's several pictures of the happy mom and daughter.

Nana Karen was chomping at the bit to hold her first grandchild.Aunt Heather gets rewarded for helping Sarah keep pace with all the breathing and leg movement Sarah needed during labor.

All the ladies pose for a picture.

Here's Vanessa!

Here's Vanessa in the baby crib. It was a great setup, the delivery room was made up to look like a normal room in a house and this crib was just on the other side of the room from where Sarah was dealing with the afterbirth of the placenta. That way the nurses could do the checkups on Vanessa without taking the baby out of sight of the mother. Pretty cool!

Vanessa is here!

Vanessa Chloe Maxted was born at 4:14 PM at Fairfax hospital. She weighed 6 lbs 11 ozs and was 21 inches long with a head circumference of 13.5 inches. Baby and Sarah are doing great! I'll try to post pictures tomorrow.

Tomorrow's the big day!

My induction has been scheduled for tomorrow, August 31st, at 7:45 AM. It's hard to imagine that I'll be holding Vanessa in my arms tomorrow! James might actually post pictures and news tomorrow, so keep checking this page!

Maybe 8-31-06?

So they still haven't scheduled an exact date yet for the inducement. Apparently, scheduled inducements are popular in Northern Virginia. But it sounds like they are shooting for the 31st of August, so we'll let you know when we hear more.

And Vanessa is still doing great. Though she was sleeping today when they tried to do a stress test on her, so they had to wake her up with a sonic alarm clock of sorts. Which prompted a big kick to Sarah's ribs. Some doctors are so rude, not letting poor babies sleep. :)

No date set yet

Hey All,
Thought I would get it on the posting fun. Sarah and I have a doctor's appointment this afternoon at 1:00 PM, so we're hopeful that we'll get an inducement date set then. Sarah's doing great; resting, eating, resting, eating, followed by some more eating. ;) We've also been busy decorating the nursery with the fabulous presents we received from you all. We're keeping our fingers crossed that Vanessa will like undersea creatures, or some redecorating may be in order.

James

Vanessa's birthday will be next week!

The doctors have been monitoring my amniotic fluid levels for the past few weeks because my levles have been running a little low. I guess they're supposed to be somewhere in the range of 8 to 10 cm (depth of fluid), and mine are an 8. Each week from here on out, my levels are supposed to drop a little, so to be on the safe side, the doctors are going to induce me a little early. If they can schedule me in at the hospital next week, they will! The doctors say that she is fully developed at 37 weeks and fine to be born any time now. Because she'll be induced, James and I can plan ahead for her, and we won't have to drive to the hospital in the middle of the night or in the wee hours of the morning. Plus we'll get to meet our baby very soon! I'll post our delivery date as soon as I know.

Baby Shower!

Everyone guessed the circuference of Sarah's tummy. Rachael estimated exactly right!

Here's a picture of Natasha taking a swing at the diaper pinata.

We decorated cloth pages of a book for Vanessa. Here's Joanna's turtle.

Ultrasound pix

From January (in this picture, Vanessa is doing her best impression of a slug):

From April (if you look at it just right, you can see her face turned sideways, with her hand tucked under her chin):

Sarah's incredible expanding tummy!

January	April
July	August

First post

Welcome to our blog! In anticipation of our little baby Vanessa, we decided to start a blog for sharing pictures and stories. Ooh, boy, won't it be exciting when we have pictures to share!