She finally has a name!

Yes, some of you probably thought we were crazy to go to the hospital to have a baby and not have a name picked out. In all honesty, by Saturday night, I was wondering about the wisdom of it too! Our stay at the hospital was a whirlwind, and Brett & I didn't have time to sit down quietly and discuss it until Saturday at dinner time. We talked to family & friends during the day, checked blog suggestions, looked on the internet, read baby name books...and STILL went to bed without a winner! Finally on Sunday morning, we settled on a name for our precious new daughter.

Lucie Claire Piersma

A New Addition to the Family!

Baby Girl Piersma
Born January 4, 2008 at 6:50pm
8 pounds, 9 ounces
21 inches long
Dark Hair, Blue Eyes

Sorry for the delay in the announcement...as you can imagine, things got a little busy here after she arrived. For those interested in more details about the rest of the labor & birth, read on...

Yesterday on the pitocin drip, I went from 4 to 7 centimeters during the course of about 8 hours. It was pretty manageable -- I was laughing through most of it (Brett is a pretty funny guy). At 3pm, our wonderful nurse Jennifer went off duty and we got another fantastic nurse named Heather. She is originally from South Africa and has worked as a midwife for many years. I truly felt like the two of them were an answer to my prayers! At about 4:45pm, the doctor arrived to break my water and things got a bit more intense after that, but thankfully they moved swiftly. Within an hour and a half, I was fully dilated and wanting to push. I was able to do a few pushes even before the doctor got here just to get things moving. The doc arrived back quickly and by 6:50pm, we were holding another sweet little girl in our arms! Ella was right -- she has a sister!

The next few hours flew by. We got to hold her immediately and kept her for about 2 hours before they took her for the routine exams, etc. I was finally able to eat again and get situated. The postpartum rooms are all full here so we're staying in the labor room until later today when one of the other rooms opens up. We'll stay overnight again tonight and head home sometime tomorrow. Ella should be here shortly to meet her sister for the first time, so I'm going to sign off. We'll try to post more pictures later in the day. Thank you for all your prayers!

PS - Baby Girl Piersma does NOT have a name yet. Feel free to post suggestions in the comments section!

Baby-Watch Update #2

This is Brett, updating on behalf of my other, um, half. Not much to say, except that it is raining outside, but not in here. That is to say, no water. There may be a flood soon, and I don't mean outside. However, the Doc is not here yet, which may be explained by the flood, that is, the one outside. When the Doc does arrive through the flood to the promised land, she will bring the outside in. Or, in other words, the insides will come out...
Over and out!
-bp

Baby Watch Update #1

Well, we're here at the hospital. We arrived a little after 6am and it took a good hour or so to get situated. There were forms to be signed, questions asked, IV to be started, etc. The nurse Karen did a cervical exam and I was still at 4 centimeters. Karen was shortly off duty and was replaced by Jennifer. When I saw her, I did an inner shout of excitement -- I remember her from when we had Ella. She was on duty when we left the hospital with Ella and actually took our family photo before we left. She has been fantastic -- upbeat, energetic and willing to let me move around as much as possible. The only bummer is that she goes off duty at 3pm. It would be great if she could be here for the birth, but I don't know that it will happen. Given my track record (and the fact that it is now 1pm), I'm doubting that will happen. Let's hope that whoever replaces her is just as good.

They started me on pitocin at around 8:30am and around 11:30am I had dilated to 5 centimeters. I did get a little break for about 30 minutes from the pitocin and got to walk around a bit. Unfortunately, the contractions started spacing out a bit further and got less intense. So, I'm back on the fetal monitor and pitocin drip for now. The doctor will probably come by at 3pm or so to break my water if necessary.

It's actually been a fun process thus far. My mom is here and Brett has been keeping us laughing. Laughing through a pitocin drip...I suppose it is a good distraction even if it does hurt a little bit more. Well, I suppose that is all to report for the moment...just waiting for 5 more centimeters! Keep praying for us.