Can we say overwhelming?!

Yes, I have been overwhelmed with both the greatest amount of pain and the greatest amount of love that I have ever experienced in my life, in a matter of seconds. Our little girl, Molly Champion Duncan, arrived yesterday, January 13th, 2010, at 5:06am after about 9 hours of labor. She was a surprising 6lbs 15oz (surprising cause everyone, including the midwife, thought she'd be at least 8 lbs and thank goodness she wasn't!). A nice 20 inches long. Head full of dark hair. And of course she's the most beautiful baby I've ever laid my eyes on! (No offense to the rest of the children on this blog!)

Molly is just a name that Todd and I like. We had unofficially decided on it before we got pregnant, and then I changed my mind after we found out we were pregnant but it was still Todd's favorite. Eventually I came around and now I couldn't imagine her being anyone but Molly! Champion was my grandfather's middle name and would have been mine if I had been born a boy. My grandfather was a wonderful man and so I wanted to honor him through Molly. Hopefully it won't cause too many tears growing up!

I won't leave too many details about labor/delivery yet, though don't worry, I'm not afraid to share! I will say that heading to the hospital Tuesday afternoon was the farthest thing from my mind that morning. At our doctors' appt, my blood pressure was elevated and I had protein in my urine. After a close examination of my placenta yesterday, our midwife, Meredith, said I actually did not have preeclampsia.....yet, but if I had gone on with another week of pregnancy, there could have been complications. So, quite unexpectedly, we went home, grabbed our bags and a bite to eat, and headed to the hospital. Our last requirement of Molly, that she wait until our midwife get back in town, had been met so it wasn't a bad thing to go a couple of days early. I wasn't sure how I felt about her being born on the 13th but Todd just says that 13 is her lucky number!

Ok, so I'm already typing more than I planned at this sitting so I'm going to give you the overview now and then return later and fill in any details that I may have left out. (It is pretty satisfying to be sitting in my hospital bed, cuddling with my new daughter and listening to her sweet breathing, with my husband just a few feet away sleeping on what I'm sure is the most comfortable sleeping surface there ever was (!) while listening to lullabies on the computer)

Ok, so we got to the hospital, they started me on pitocin which my body seemed to react pretty favorably to. About 8 hours later I was screaming that I didn't think I could make it drug-free any longer. The midwife encouraged me to make it through a few more contractions and then she would check to see how much progress had been made. Well, that check found me 10cm dilated and ready to push so the odds of getting that last minute epidural seemed to fly out the window. After about 30-45 minutes of the worst pain of my life, out popped my beautiful baby!

To answer the question everyone is asking, I am glad I went drug free because I found that I felt I needed to prove it to myself that I could do it. Having now done it, I don't necessarily feel the need ever to prove it to myself again! :-P

I can fill in any details that people may be curious about or answer any questions y'all might be having, just feel free to ask! I can't wait for you all to get to meet her! She's just perfect!!!

Emily <><