Meet Sophia Kathleen

At 5:03am on June 29th, 2006, Sophia Kathleen Gerhard was born, 6 pounds 14 ounces, with lots of hair and long eyelashes.




Tricia figures that labour actually started around 6:30 last night with back spasms, but we were in the hospital by 11:30 and in the labour room by midnight. On first exam she was 2 cm dilated and at station -3 (station is a measure of descent of the head in the pelvis, from -4 being the least to +4 being furthest down) so the nurse thought we would be here for a while. The amniotic fluid was a bit greenish (maconium) so they put her on a fetal monitor for a few contractions, and everything looked good. The baby's heartbeat was around 140 most of the time, dropping down to 110 or 120 during the contractions.

Around 1:30 am, Tricia was indicating that she was in a lot of pain, but she was still not very dilated so the nurses couldn't give her an epidural yet. Instead, they gave her a shot of morphine with some gravol-like substance, and that seemed to make things a bit easier for her for a while.

At around 4:30 am, Tricia was in a lot of pain and the contractions were very strong. I called the nurse in to have another look, and Tricia was fully dilated at station +4. What normally takes 16 hours, Tricia did in 3. Unfortunately, she was now too late for an epidural, so she had to do the whole thing "naturally". She was in a lot of pain.

She started pushing at around 4:30, and the baby emerged at 5:03. Again, very quick. Seems this baby was very anxious to come into the world, but still wanted to be "on time". Not many babies arrive on their due date, so they say.

So here she is.

She is pink and breathing and quiet and just barely opening her eyes for the first time. I think she likes it here, although it is a lot brighter than where she's been for the past little while.

They took her away from us for a few minutes to make sure everything was OK with the maconium (which it was) and then they gave her back to us for half an hour or so. We had a go at breastfeeding, and after a couple false starts she seemed to get a good latch and fed for a few seconds before falling asleep again.

Sophia was then taken down to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit for observation, which we knew would be happening. Tricia had been on anxiety medication before and during the pregnancy, and doctors are not quite sure what that could mean - in a small percentage of cases like this, there are a few complications, which are easy to take care of if noticed soon. She decided to stay on the pills because doctors DO know what can happen with excess stress during pregnancy. But having her in the NICU is not a big deal. Like I said, we knew it would happen, and it is giving Tricia a chance to rest.

So Sophie is down there and Tricia is resting after a long night. It could have been a lot longer, for sure. No beds free in the maternity ward, so for the time being we are hanging out in the delivery room. They gave Tricia some breakfast (none for the dad, sheesh) and she is now napping again. I'm going to head down to the NICU to see Sophie.

Sophie. It's still so strange to think that we have a little girl. We had said all along that we would be happy whether it was a boy or a girl, but I think secretly we were both hoping for a girl. There seem to be a lot of boys popping out these days and we are happy to buck the trend.

At least we're not spelling it Sowfee or anything like that...