New Baby Girl! Meet Samantha Marie Chase

Friday Morning at around 3:30 am Natalie started going into Labor. She showered real quick and came out and told me to shower as well. As I was getting ready to shower, she had a strong contraction. She was standing/leaning against the wall, and I asked her, "Do I have time to shower?!" She said half angirly and half in pain, "Yes! Just get in there!". So I did. Janet Wilson came over about 5:30 am to watch Luke. We stayed and talked for about an hour. She was helping time Natalie's conractions. She's an expert (she's been through it 9 times on her own).

We arrived at the hospital at 6:50 am. They checked Natalie and she was dialated 6 cm. About a half of an hour later, she was dialated 7 cm. Then the baby stalled out and we had to wait until about 12:15 until the doctor came in and broke her water. He hurried off to a C-section he had scheduled at 12:30. At about 12:50 Natalie told me she felt like she needed to start pushing! Luckily the nurse came in shortly after that and checked Natalie. She checked Natalie and said "No wonder you feel like you want to push! The baby's head is right there. You are fully dialated and she's ready to come out." A few minutes later the doctor came and said lets do it. The nurses got things set up and the doctor told Natalie to push for 10 seconds. She did. Then he said do it again for 10 seconds. At about the 8 second mark I looked down and saw the baby coming out! Natalie pushed for less than 20 seconds. It sure beats pushing for 2 hours like she had to with Luke.

Sure enough the baby was a girl! She was healthy and came out crying and breathing alright. They have some sort of scale or numbering system to document how healthy the baby is when she is born. I think it is called the Apgar or something like that. Anyway, they rated Samantha a 9-10. Apparently it's rare to be given that good of a rating (at least by that nurse). I think Luke was a 1-2 or something like that.

Unfortunately Natalie had another 4th degree tear, the worst you can have. The doctor stitched her up, and I'm sure she will be sore for weeks to come.

Samantha was born at 1:12 pm cst, Jan 23rd 2009, right on her due date. She weighed 8lbs 5 oz. and measured 20.5 inches long. She has dark brown hair with some gold streaks/patches here and there. She took to nursing very quickly and appears to be in good all around condition.

Luke and I have visited twice. He seems to be really sweet with the baby. Last night he was even crying that Mommy AND the baby weren't here at home. I knew he would cry for Mommy, but I wasn't expecting him to cry for Samantha.

We officially named her Samantha Marie this morning, later than we planned just because we hadn't had time to really discuss it between changing rooms, nurse and doctor visits, visitors, phone calls, nursings, Luke playing with medical equipment he shouldn'tbe in the rooms, ect. But she had a name less than 20 hours after she was born....

I'm sure Natalie will take back over blogging after my first blog to the world. She is wanting to come home tomorrow even though initially the doctor was thinking Monday might be more realistic due to her tear. Other than that, Mom and baby Samantha are doing great. Enjoy all the pictures.