Change of Plans

The midwife and her assistant arrived at midnight last night, and everything was set into motion for our home birth.  Labor seemed to be progressing well, and we thought that the baby would arrive by morning.  At 6:00 AM my mother started her five-hour trek to our house, hoping to arrive just in time to see the baby born.  But, as I mentioned in my first post about the baby, sometimes we have to look at the warning signs and make a decision to change our plans. After 18 hours sporadic contractions, we knew we needed to go to the emergency room.  Wouldn't you know it, the labor would progress quickly once we got there.  Sparing you the gory details, after a hard two hours of labor, our beautiful baby girl, Zaira Dominique was born at 5:32PM with they help of Michael and Grandma with the midwife (on the sidelines) as she did not have hospital privileges.

Upon seeing our large baby girl, the doctor became very concerned that I had gestational diabetes.  She warned us that we might have to stay in the hospital for a couple of days.  After nursing the baby, Zaira was taken to the nursery to be weighed and observed, and I was moved to a private room.  That was when we found out that Zaira weighed ten pounds nine ounces and was 21 and 3/4 inches long.  A friend of ours had taken care of our boys when we went into the hospital, so Michael and Mom had to go pick them up and take them home.  Mom volunteered to stay at the house with the boys, so that Michael could stay with Zaira and me at the hospital.

This morning, the doctor informed us that Zaira would need to remain in the hospital for 48 hours for observation.  So here we are, serving our time until our reprieve tomorrow.  In the meantime, Zaira is nursing like a pro and Daddy is trying to spoil her rotten.  We will bring the boys up to meet her this afternoon.  Will blog about that soon..

We are so thankful for our family and friends that were/are praying for a healthy baby and a safe delivery.