Baby 2.0 has been released to the world!
At 3:32 p.m. today, September 8, Keith Alton McAlister entered the world via C-section, weighing in at 8 lbs 3.6 oz and 21″ long.
Just after 3 a.m. this morning, Elizabeth woke up realizing her water broke. We sprung into action, grabbed the bags, dropped Taylor with a neighbor (thank you Janice we love you!), and ran for the hospital.
Best one-liner of the morning: we had to use the intercom to get in the hospital. Attendant asked, “Can I help you?” Elizabeth’s response: “My water just broke and I’d like to come in, please.” Attendant cracked up.
Labor went fairly well, once they got the epidural in right. First try, it only numbed half of her. They tried upping the dosage, no good. Finally, they had to start over with a second epidural. That one worked fine.
Peace and quiet for a while. Then, about 10:30 a.m., a bit of distress. Elizabeth dilated to 6cm, then 10 minutes later was at 10cm. Show time!
Keith, however, had other plans. Stubborn boy that he is (Elizabeth blamed that on me, of course), he didn’t want to come out. After 3 and a half hours of pushing with no progress (Elizabeth is my hero), our doctor made the tough call to prep her for surgery.
Just over an hour later, Keith was in my arms, and Elizabeth was being stitched back together again.
She had some trouble in recovery — very low blood pressure, likely due in part to the sheer quantity of medicine she’d had — but came through just fine, in time.
So here we sit, the tail end of a very, very long day. Elizabeth and Keith are resting well. I’ll post more pictures here and on the Flickr feed (above) after I catch a few hours of sleep.
For all the prayers, good thoughts and well-wishes, we thank you all. It’s been a very long, but very good day.