Welcome to the world, Georgia Grace!

The wait is finally over! Our Georgia Grace was born (induced) on April 10, 2009 at 5:25 pm. She weighed 7 lbs. 13 oz. and 20 in. long. The "Pokey Little Puppy" was a week late, so the Dr. decided to induce. It was a bizarre and intense day for everyone involved. We went into Vanderbilt Medical Center at 8 am on Good (no, Great!) Friday for the induction. At about 10 am, Maggie was administered Cytotec (the first of two possible induction drugs on the menu that day) and began feeling her first contractions a little before noon. Several times throughout the day, GG's heart rate would dip down to half of the normal rate and 10 people would rush into the room to check on mommy and baby. Every time, it would come back up, but the nerve-racking thing was they made Maggie stay in the same position ALL DAY LONG. The theory was that Georgia was laying, punching, or choke-slamming her umbilical cord, causing the decrease in heartrate. It scared us every time, and the ob team didn't want to take any chances. At this point, Maggie was dilated to 4 cm, and at around 2 pm, they decided to break her water. Almost immediately, her contractions went from uncomfortable to very intense. After about an hour of "getting runover by a dump truck" contractions, we decided to take the epidural. The epidural, normally a 15 minute procedure, was an event in itself, serving as a "learning experience" for two lucky students. 45 minutes later, around 3:45 pm the epidural was in, Mommy was in no pain, and she was dilated to 8 cm. We relaxed and visited for a bit and at about 5 pm, they checked her cervix again...10 cm! They gathered the team of 1 nurse midwife and a couple of nurses and Maggie started pushing at 5:15 pm. She pushed 4 or 5 times and we had another scary episode of low baby heartrate. We began to worry when the ob team began rounding up what seemed like dozens of nurses, doctors, and support staff for an urgent maneuver. Within seconds, there were literally 2 resident physicians, an attending ob/gyn physician, a nurse midwife, 4 nurses, a pediatrician, 2 pediatric nurses, and a surgical tech in the room working together like a well-oiled machine. Oh, by the way, also in this single-patient room were 4 grandparents, 1 aunt, 1 uncle (sorry, Joe!), 1 cousin, 1 Mommy, 1 Daddy, and eventually, 1 very angry baby. The decision was made to get her out as fast as possible. A resident, with the guidance of the attending M.D., got to work with the forceps and 2 or 3 pushes later, out came Georgia to a crowd of 21 of her closest friends! We are sooooooo thankful to the amazing and talented staff at Vanderbilt and hate to wonder what could've happened if they had not acted so quickly and decisively. Mommy and GG are both very happy and healthy and thankful for your thoughts and prayers. As always, we don't know where we would be without our friends and family!