Summer Joyce Callister has arrived!

She popped out at 4:56 pm. 6 lb, 2 oz, 19" long. Absolutely perfect!

I can't believe she's here! We are already absolutely in love with her!

Here's how it all went down....

We got to the hospital at 6:30am and got settled in our room. The nurse checked me and I wasn't dilated. Great. My doc said I had until 10:30am to make some progress or they were going to start Pitocin. So we walked and walked around and around the unit. I foolishly listened to the nurse who called me at home and didn't eat anything. Big mistake. I was starving, and all I could have was jello and popsicles. Luckily they have the all-fruit popsicles which I loved at the beginning of my pregnancy. This made me a happy camper.

So 10:30 comes and I'm still not dilated. So here comes the IV. I have amazing veins, and the nurse somehow manages to blow 2 of them. In comes another nurse and finally gets one in. She starts the Pitocin and the contractions really start to pick up. My doc comes in at 1 to check me and I'm dilated to a whopping 1. So disheartening. My nurse tells me we'll check again at 3. So I keep laboring, and the contractions are getting stronger, and I'm wondering if I can make it without an epidural. She checks me at 3 and I've progressed to.....a 2. Oh man, I started crying. All that pain, and only a 2??? She did drop a LOT though, the nurse says, which makes me feel a little better. I decide to get some Nubain through my IV to take the edge off the pain, although I don't think it did a THING. We agree to check in an hour, at 4. This next hour was killer. Huge contractions. Derrick did such a great job, though. He would push on my back when I told him to, and would stop when I told him the contraction was over. In the meantime he was sitting on the birthing ball watching football bowl games. What a gig. :)

So I get checked at 4 and I'm now at a 6!! Best news I've heard all day! They ask me one last time if I wanted an epidural and I said no. I could see the light at the end of the tunnel now! My doctor was off at 5, and said she would stop by before she got off to see how I was doing. She shows up at 4:30, checks me, and announces we're about to have a baby! I can't believe I dilated so fast at the end!

In a flash, out comes all the equipment-the baby warmer, the sterile tools. They take off the bottom of my bed and I scoot up and Derrick holds one leg and the nurse holds the other. And then I push. And push. I push for 22 minutes and out comes Summer! They put her right on my chest and I got to hold her for a few minutes before they take her away and clean her up. She had a low temp at first so they kept her under the warmer for a little while longer and waited to give her a bath for a couple hours.

I had a lot of bleeding after delivery so they worked on me for awhile until I was stable and not hemorrhaging anymore. Yummy.

She has tons of brown hair, which I'm sooo in love with. Really, it's the only thing I wanted her to have. As she was crowing I even asked if she had hair. You know, the important stuff.





She wasn't having anything to do with breastfeeding, though. She wouldn't even suck on my finger. So she didn't eat for a good 8 hours after delivery. I was a little nervous that she wouldn't get the hang of it, but now she's doing great. Eats like a champ, just like her parents.

I definitely think she's gotten a lot cuter since yesterday. She pretty much just sleeps and eats right now. I'm just waiting for her to wake up out of her baby coma and make things more interesting. In the meantime, I'm trying to sleep as much as I can!

Thanks for all the well wishes, emails, and texts! We can't wait for everyone to meet her. And more pictures will be coming soon!