39.5 weeks: with pictures!

Here I am at 39 weeks exactly (we remembered!):

For the sake of comparison, here I am at 39 weeks pregnant with Liam:

But for what may constitute the final persuasive argument for using contraception, here I am at 40 weeks 3 days pregnant with Ngaire, complete with pemphigoid gestationis rash:

Anyway, here I am at 39 weeks 2 days, with Rhiannon Rosemary, who was born last night at 11:27 p.m., after a 2.5 hour labor (her first name is pronounced ree-ON-in):

We are both dozing there, because it turns out that if you deliver close to midnight, it will be close to 2:30 a.m. before you even get to begin the period of trying to sleep whilst various nurses come in to impale you with needles, prod your uterus, etc.

It was a fast and furious delivery … I had had my usual non-regular, light contractions throughout the day. At 9:37 p.m., I realized that I had just been hit with two contractions in a row that required labor-style breathing, and when I clocked the contractions after that, they were 4 minutes apart. The Husbandlet went off to take a shower while I moved around a bit to see if the contractions stopped. They didn’t; I called my parents and doctor, and by the time the Husbandlet got out of the shower, the contractions were 2 minutes apart and I was experimenting with different positions to get through them. We handed the metaphorical baton to my incoming parents and arrived at the hospital around 10:30. I was a stretchy 5 cm dilated; the amniotic sac was bulging, and the triage nurse said I would deliver within the hour. We moved to a delivery room, and I could tell by my general feeling of queasiness and dizziness that I had probably hit transition. The baby’s heart rate gave the nurse some concern, so she told me to lie on my side to see if that would make a difference. It did. It also made me need to push almost immediately … the Husbandlet went out to retrieve the nurse, who had left for a minute, and came back with a small army of medical personnel, including the doctor. This surprised me, because for some reason I was convinced that they were going to tell me I wasn’t allowed to push, that I was only 7 cm or something. As it happened, Rhiannon was born three contractions later.

She weighed 7 pounds 1 ounce, was 19.2 inches long, and has very black hair. So far, she seems pretty mellow, though that may just mean “sleepy.” We’re spending an extra night at the hospital because I’m a strep B carrier and she was born too quickly to get the required doses of penicillin through my IV. Also, she seems to be having difficulty breathing through her nose, especially when nursing. I’m feeling great, on the whole … a tad sore, but I didn’t tear. And I have a beautiful baby girl.

I’m fond of my other kidlets as well …

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