Monday, February 13, 2006

Baby Miriam has been born!

Baby Miriam decided to join our family on Saturday, February 11, at 5:42 in the evening.

Here is mom 6 days before giving birth, any guesses as to the size of baby in there?



Miriam was a 10lb (0 oz) baby! Huge! 21.25" long. Here's Christina with her less than an hour after the birth.



And Miriam showing off her chub at her first bath...



And me, the proud daddy...



Now for the full scoop, it's quite the story: (more pictures below)

Christina was just a few days beyond her due date but the doctor called her in on Friday afternoon to monitor the baby for a little while. My mom (my parents had just flown in that afternoon) accompanied Christina to the test. The test got longer as they went, the doctors kept wanting to observe the baby for more and more time, by the time I got the kids in bed Christina called and told me to come down the hospital - they now had her on a light petosin drip and wanted to monitor her through the night and see if any labor developed. I packed the bags, made sure that the house was ready for my absence and arrived at the hospital at 10:30 Friday night. Christina had a fever which was causing the baby's heart rate to drop or spike during the contractions (thus the continued monitoring). The contractions were about 15 minutes apart, but too heavy for Christina to be able to sleep through, so the nurse knocked her out with a sleeping pill which gave us about 4 hours of sleep before the stronger contractions woke her up, now ten minutes apart. By noon we were moved into the birthing room. By now her fever was cleared and the baby's heart beat was doing fine.

Christina was now ready for an Epidural, she had been laboring for quite some time and it was hurting pretty bad. They also had her on the Petosin which was making the labor harder on her. The doctor made her a deal - we're going to up the Petosin and get this baby moving fast but we'll give you an epidural so you can get some rest again. The first epidural attempt hit a vein, the second attempt caused her an enormous amount of pain. The third epidural went in fine and they began dosing it up. The plan was that Christina would be able to get relief from the epidural and rest for a few hours so I took off to grab some lunch since I hadn't had any food since the previous evening. I arrived back to find that the epidural medication wasn't taking at all - they had increased the meds to the max - the same level they use for cessarians - but there was absolutely no numbing, not even a tingling in her toes. Poor girl was now thoroughly tubed into her bed and couldn't move around, but all tubes going into her weren't helping things out - she did great though. By now the full dose of Petosin had kicked in and Christina was feeling every bit of it!

Progress was slow and painful. The whole morning of labor was spent getting from 2 to 3 centimeters, and then the afternoon's work brought us to 6cm, and then despite the intensity of the contractions we didn't seem to be getting anywhere. Every check brought about a measurement of 6cm. Around 5:30 Christina told the nurse that she was pushing, so the midwife came and checked here again - this time at 7cm, with the baby still too far up to break the water safely - OK, honey, just keep on going, you're doing good. Right then Christina's dad called the the front desk to get a report, the nurse told him things were a little tough, but it was still an hour or two until delivery.

The next contraction hit less than thirty seconds after the midwife had checked her at 7cm, the water broke on this contraction, the nurse ran out of the room to grab the midwife, and as they both ran in the baby's head had already crowned. Christina did her best to hold back against the contraction, the midwife had just enough time to put on her gloves before the contraction ended and the whole baby was out! So much for the one to two hours.

Going from 7cm to 16cm dialation hurts a body pretty hard, so it took awhile to get Christina repaired and put back together. But boy was she delighted to have it over and meet her new little ten pound baby girl.

That first night Miriam was just a squeaker, but tonight she found her voice, I'm sure it will get even louder over the next few days. She spent about an hour this morning in my arms just looking around at everything - in fact I got to spend most of the day holding her while Christina rested - Miriam doesn't seem to like to be in her bassonet alone, I think I've already spoiled her by bouncing her around on my shoulder throughout the day. She's a cute little thing.

She had plenty of visitors today - David and Abigail both got to hold their new sister...







Here's all three Henderson kids with Grandma Debbie...



And my parents and grandmother with Miriam...



And a final shot of 4 generations together....



Christina will probably come home from the hospital tomorrow, I'll try to keep this blog posted with what's happening.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

congrats bro hope everything goes weel and I'll keep praying for ya
Sean.H

Anonymous said...

Adriel, Christina, and family - CONGRATULATIONS! Thanks for sharing the news and the pictures. I can not believe how big she is (and David and Abigail are so big too!!!) Christina I hope you heal up quick, it sounds like it was traumatic...and that you did an amazing job under a bit scary circumstances. Thinking of you both and sending love,
Amy (beacom)

Brian Eberly said...

Woo-Hoo!!! CONGRATULATIONS Adriel and Christina! Miriam is a beautiful little girl! What a precious gift!

Anonymous said...

Congrats!!
I was just talking to angie on friday about when you guys were going to have that baby.
Wow! 10 pounds is huge. Of course any baby seems huge to me after the twins.=)
Anyway we will pray for your healing Christina.
love, Mandy and Jerek

John & Stephanie Parks said...

What a beautiful baby girl, I am so happy for your family. I am looking forward to seeing more pictures soon. Get some rest, I hope you are feeling yourself again soon. - Steph

Anonymous said...

Congratulations, Hendersons! What a beautiful new baby. Great pictures, great story. Thanks for sharing it. I hope you'll be able to bring her by for introductions soon.

kvo

Anonymous said...

Christina and Adriel....congratulations! that is one chubby but very cute baby. :) Chris....i'm so glad you made is through okay...you're a tough lady! I've been praying for you lately...wasn't sure when Miriam would come, but knew it was soon. Praise God for His faithfulness to your family! Love you guys...Heather :)

Anonymous said...

Christina and Adriel....congratulations! that is one chubby but very cute baby. :) Chris....i'm so glad you made is through okay...you're a tough lady! I've been praying for you lately...wasn't sure when Miriam would come, but knew it was soon. Praise God for His faithfulness to your family! Love you guys...Heather :)