He's Here!

We're excited to announce the birth of Christian Daniel Dalton on Saturday, August 14, 2010. He weighed 6 lbs. 10 oz. and was 20.5 inches long.

Kelly brought Benjamin to the hospital to pick us up.



At home, Bella seemed a bit nervous around him at fist, but she warmed up quickly.



For this delivery I had three wishes - 1. that it not be in the middle of the night (as Isabella had been), 2. that I have the same anesthesiologist as I'd had with Benjamin because she's a miracle worker (and I'm convinced the one with Isabella had been one of Satan's minions) and 3. that I finally get my favorite doctor from my OB practice to deliver the baby, since it's been someone else the other two times. I got all three wishes! I started having really strong contractions at 2am on Saturday (our 9th anniversary) but Kelly was on a scout camp-out so I hoped they would fade. By 6am I knew that wasn't going to happen. So I called him and asked him to come home. He came home and we got to the hospital at 9am.

On the way to hospital and when we first got there, my contractions nearly stopped all together. I was worried it had been false labor and that I'd called Kelly home for nothing! However, they checked me and saw that things were indeed progressing - I was at a 2 and 80% effaced, so they asked me to walk around for a while and see if that helped. If it didn't, I'd need to go home. So we walked for a while and the contractions returned. When they checked me again an hour later, I was at a 4 and 90%, so they admitted me. It turned out that my favorite doctor - Dr. Cantor - was on duty, so he came in and broke my water and called the anesthesiologist. I didn't recognize the name, but when she same in, I saw that my 3rd wish had been granted - it was the one I'd wanted. (I have scoliosis and probably because of that or simply because it was the middle of the night last time, but the other lady had done a terrible job. She'd had to poke me 4 times to get it right.) This doctor got it right the first time with no issue at all. Almost immediately the pain subsided and everything was smooth sailing. At this point it was about 1pm and I was at a 6. They also gave me a little pitocin to keep things moving and about at 3pm I started to feel A LOT of pressure. Doctor Cantor came in and I was at a 10 and ready to push. It really, really hurt to push so I didn't want to prolong it any more than necessary. I pushed as hard as I could (in fact, at one point the doctor said, "woah, slow down, not quite so hard and fast!") and after 3 long pushes, little Christian was out, pink, and screaming. It was my easiest labor and delivery yet. No vomiting, no 5 minute long pitocin-induced contractions, no hellish epidural experience. All those things that had been hard with the first two were not there. Everything flowed and worked perfectly. It was wonderful. All my wishes granted. And now I have another beautiful little baby boy. And 24 hours later, I packed up and went home! People were surprised to hear I was leaving so soon, but would you enjoy staying where they come in at 5:30am to draw your blood???

I'll be sure to post more pictures when we take some more. For now, all three kids are sleeping, so that's what I'm going to do too.