The Baby is Here!

I'm an Auntie!

My morning started at 3:30 am when my niece came into the bedroom and told me she had been having "cramps" for about an hour. I got up and started timing it. She was having pains every 5-7 minutes. After about 30 minutes, I told her that she was definitely in labor and woke everyone up. By 5 am, the pain was a bit more intense, and although I figured she had a while, she was worried and wanted to go to the hospital, so off we went. We got there about 5:40 and they took us right up to the pregnancy triage department, slapped a monitor on her and started checking things out. After about an hour, they said they were transferring her to the labor and delivery unit.

We got settled in and my niece was doing well. Baby's heartbeat was steady and she was having contractions about every 4 minutes. She was 2 centimeters dilated and about 50% effaced. She was determined not to use any drugs, and was doing well for the first 7 hours, she had dilated to 5. However, at that point the doc decided to break her waters to get things moving more. That's when the labor got really hard, and after about 20 minutes my niece needed the epidural.

After that, it was smooth sailing, just a waiting game until time to push, which happened around 6 pm, 15 hours into labor. My niece was such a trooper, she pushed really hard and at 6:56 pm the baby was born! He was fine. It took a couple of minutes for him to really start crying and pink up, but after that, he was perfect. They put him on mom's chest and just let them bond while they got her stitched up and cleaned. All the nurses said she had a "picture perfect delivery". Mom and baby are doing just fine.

The baby is 8 pounds, 3 ounces and 21 inches long. he looks just like his mommy, with the same pouty lips and slightly slanted eyes. She was planning on naming him Hunter, but once he came out, she wasn't sure if he looked like a Hunter, so she's taking a day to think about it before giving him a name. That's all fine, because I've been calling him Duckie since he was an embryo, and that's the nickname that will always stick.

All of us were crying when he was born. I held him when he was about 25 minutes old, and my heart totally melted. This is going to be one loved baby boy. He is surrounded by people to love and support him and we're all going to take excellent care of him. His mom is already completely in love with him, and very very protective. She didn't even want to leave him in my arms for 10 minutes to get to the bathroom!

Me and the Duckie!

My niece asked that no pics be put on facebook or the blog, but she did say I could post this one, as long as I concealed his face. But trust me, this boy is beautiful! Big hands and feet, dark hair, and a pout that is going to break hearts! This whole experience has been amazing and we're all so glad Duckie is finally here. My niece usually has terrible timing, but in this case, she went into labor and had him on her due date of January 3. With a birthdate of 1/3/13 I think this kid is headed for big things!   

We are all tired and happy. I have the house to myself for a bit, since my daughter went up to the hospital early this morning and my husband is at work. I'm going to putter around and get things straightened up and cleaned in preparation for Duckie's homecoming tomorrow! I'll be heading to the hospital with the hubby once he gets home from work... he hasn't seen the Duck Man yet!

In the meantime, I have to come up with my own nickname for Duckie to call me. I'm his Great Aunt (Grantie???), and I was thinking about using "Tia" (Spanish for Aunt), since my daughter is already calling herself "Auntie" (even though she's technically his second cousin).