November 30, 2005 - New Niece

My sister had her baby on Saturday evening. Her name is Caitlin Marie. She was born vaginally at 7:18pm, weighing 9.5 pounds, 21.25 inches long, after only 18 minutes of some very impressive pushing on my sister's part. This is the first birth I've witnessed, and it was simply astounding. Jess went into the hospital that morning around 7am, and called me in around 1. I got there a little after 2, and 5 hours later there was my niece. I admit that I was a little worried that Jess' husband wasn't going to call me at all - he'd recently put up a fuss about me being in the delivery room at all (he has some jealousy issues about Jesse being close to anyone but him, I guess.), but it all went very smoothly. I did my best to be supportive but unobtrusive, helpful to both of them and out of the way.
As for the actual birth experience, well, here's hoping mine goes as well. She did end up having the epidural, though she'd said beforehand that she wasn't going to. This necessitated her being ringed about with monitors and IV's and drips and all sorts of stuff, and being bed-bound through the whole thing. I'd really like to avoid that, if I can. She was laying on her back for the pushing, which is supposed to be the least effective position, but hell, 18 minutes of pushing doesn't seem inefficient to me! She only had a single superficial tear, too, so I'd say it was an all-around good birth. Caitlin is healthy and beautiful.
My turn is coming up. I'm a little over 5 weeks from my due date, though I am sort of hoping he comes a bit early. My stomach is enormous. He's very strong and very active and seems perfectly healthy, so if he wants to come out a couple of weeks early, I think we'll all be okay with that. We shall see.