What you have all been waiting for...

Introducing... Haddie June VanOrden...

These two pictures are the only ones on the camera. The other ones have already been uploaded onto the other computer and Dave is working on it so this is what you get for now. But there are a few more pics on this website... http://gallery.me.com/vanorden They are pictures from the first few days... leaving the hospital... first bath (preceded by first diaper blowout)... etc... I look like I got hit by a truck in most of the pictures but I kind of felt like it too so I guess it works. :) When I get a chance I will update with more pictures and the last of my prego pics too which are kind of pointless now.

So... now for the novel... I had been having increasing Braxton Hicks and what felt like mild menstrual cramp type contractions for a week maybe. At about 5:30 am on the 8th I woke up having real contractions. They were somewhat irregular but averaging about 7 minutes apart or so. Then at 6:00 am they started coming about 2 minutes apart (Dave says they were more like 1 minute apart when I woke him up at 6:30). So we called the midwife at about 7:00 and she said to go ahead and come into the clinic at 7:30 and she would check me. She also said a shower might help with the pain if I wanted to shower before I came in. I showered but I'm not sure that it had any effect on the pain whatsoever except that I didn't have a pillow to squeeze the crap out of in the shower. We got to the clinic at 8:30. If you are wondering what in the heck took us so long to get there we were taking our time because they had told us stories of women coming in to the clinic dying in pain and only being dilated to a 3 or something ridiculous and being sent home. I did not want to get sent home so I was taking my time and hoping it was doing some good. Just before we got in the car to go to the clinic another contraction hit me and I was using my neighbor's fence as support to ride it out. I think she saw me through her window and was afraid I might rip it out of the ground because she came out to see if we were okay. :) On the ride to the clinic I was kneeling backwards on the front seat because it was too painful to sit like a normal person. Its a good thing the hospital (and clinic) is about a 3 minute drive away! We got to the clinic and I was at a 7 luckily! We walked over to the hospital and got all hooked up to the monitors and then my water broke. I was pretty glad it broke when I was laying there in the bed and not on the walk over from the clinic! It took about 20 minutes to walk what usually takes 5 minutes due to the every 1-2 minute contractions and I caused a traffic jam in the stairwell which was kind of embarrassing since everyone was standing there staring at me waiting for me to get done having that contraction so they could pass by. I think we got to the L&D room around 9:00 or so. I ended up pushing for an hour and half because the little stinker was posterior. A doctor came in and tried to turn her head at one point and... OH WOW... that was probably one of the most painful parts of the whole thing! She finally made her debut at 11:42 am. They had to suction out her stomach because there was meconium in the fluid and she had swallowed some. She had a serious conehead from all the pushing but was still the most precious thing I've ever seen. She is even more beautiful now that her head is normal shape. :) She is a little piglet and never even lost any weight like most babies do the first few days. She was 7 lbs 9 oz at birth and 7 lbs 11 oz when we left the hospital. She was having a little bit of an issue with her oxygen level dropping when she cried. She would get a little blue around her lips when she would get worked up. They did a couple chest x-rays and blood tests and we had to stay an extra night in the hospital. The doctor was thinking of keeping her an extra night or two because of it and we were so sad to think about leaving her and SO grateful when we didn't have to. We had to come back the next day for a little check-up and everything looked good! And she had gained another ounce already! The doctor said sometimes its just something that happens with certain babies as they adapt to life outside the womb. We just had our two week check-up and she already weighs 8 lbs 14 oz! She is a great baby! From the moment she was born she has been super alert and not too fussy. I am starting to feel like my normal self again, physically and mentally. Dave has been so amazing through the whole thing. He let me squeeze the crap out of him during labor and has taken great care of me and Haddie as I recover. We are loving our new little family!!