baby fever

This morning, my family welcomed a new addition to the brood. Aubrey Rae was born at 10:56 AM, weighing 8 pounds 3 ounces and measuring 20.5 inches long.

Last night, my sister Kirstin was brought to the hospital at 7 pm to be induced. Her due date was today, but she needed to get some antibiotics for the strep virus before they could start pumping her with petocin. My mom, her mother in law, and I were on call all night — constantly text messaging each other to see if any progress was made. Early this morning, she was 4-5 cm. dilated, so we all headed in together.

At that point, not much was happening. Kirstin had an epidural the night before and she was progressing pretty slowly, so we all visited, told jokes, and Kirstin tried to get some rest before the big event. Around 9:30 this morning, her water broke on its own (right before they were going to call the doctor to do it for her), and she went from 7 centimeters to 10 centimeters in a matter of 15-20 minutes. At this point, Kirstin was feeling a lot of pressure and pain, despite the fact she had an epidural — and everyone but the doctor figured out it was time to have a baby.

Aubrey was sitting pretty low, so the nurse assumed that she wouldn’t have to push too much, and boy was she right! We waited… and waited… and waited for that doctor. In fact, the nurse had her start pushing before the doctor even arrived. When the doctor got there, he looked frantic and frazzled — and the gleam in his eye told us he really would like to kick a few people out of the room, but he really and truly had absolutely no time to do so (score one for me!). I was pretty excited that I got to stay in there!

With 2 pushes with the doctor in the room, Aubrey was born — let’s just say this Auntie was blubbering like a fool.

 
If you have never seen a birth before, it is honestly and truly one of the most amazing things to watch. Although to be perfectly honest with you — it squashed some of my baby fever like a bug. My big sister was truly a champ and stayed focused and calm the entire time — and she was overjoyed to see that the baby looks exactly like her (pout and all!).

Aubrey is an incredibly alert baby, and she did not sleep a wink until almost 3 hours after she was born. She couldn’t stop looking around and taking in her new world.

 
Mama and baby are doing just great and are resting up for more visitors this afternoon and evening. They will likely get to go home sometime tomorrow and get settled in as a (now) family of five (or 6 if you include the dog).

I am so incredibly proud of my sister for bringing this unbelievably beautiful baby girl into this world, and I know she will continue to be a great mother with each passing day.

Congratulations, Kirstin and Landon! Aubrey is perfect in so many ways.

Tagged as: aunt, birth experience, family, having a baby, new baby