Cometh the Hour, Cometh the ... Little Baby?

NOTE: Scroll down for updates at the bottom of the post as they occur! Current update: #6 - Matthew has arrived!

Well, the title might miss some of you, but I thought it was funny at least! With a resounding ding the oven timer has gone off, so this baby is fully prepared. In fact, if you asked B, she might say it was a little "overdone," having been ready to get the enormous lump off her poor bladder for a couple of weeks, but at any rate, we're finally here.

Anyway, it is that time. The MD got tired of waiting for the baby to show up on his own (due date is tomorrow), and so he wanted to go ahead and jumpstart things with some chemical assistance. Apparently, he thinks the baby is on the large side, which is bad news for B. Here we are, though, having left the house at about 5:30 this morning. It's now 6:30 as I type this, and they've just started the Pitocin drip, which should see the contractions get more regular as it kicks in. I'll follow with updates as we have more news.

How can you tell we're just getting started? B's still smiling! Ha, ha. No, seriously honey, it was a joke. You look wonderful. What's that? I'm not going to print things like that on the blog!! For the rest of you, rest assured that in reality, B is a sweet-tempered woman and would never do any of those hateful things to me. At least, not while she's strapped to a hospital bed and I'm across the room. If she managed to catch me, now that might be another story ... ;)

In this gratuitous Steven shot, he's practicing his "Welcome home, baby Matthew!" pose with his grandmother.

Anyway, that's it for now. I'll put updates below so that the three or four of you who are that interested can follow along.

UPDATE #1: 9:15 AM
MD has just been here, and reports that B is now 2-3 cm dilated, and the Pitocin is kicking in seriously. Poor B is having contractions almost on top of each other, and even though they aren't incredibly strong yet they're backing off the dosage just a bit. The main thing the MD did was to break B's water, which should speed things up as well.

In short, so far, so good! The only bad (?) news was the size of the baby, which he thought might be 9 lbs./3.9 kg plus! Thanks for all of you who are thinking of us, and I'll try to post another update around lunchtime.

UPDATE #2: 11:30 AM
B's been hanging out on the birthing ball for the past couple of hours, and has made some progress. Nurse just checked and reports that we're up to 5 cm, and the baby has dropped a bit deeper.

At any rate, B's back in bed, and I think she's leaning towards getting an epidural this time. One heroic delivery was enough for her, apparently. I'll check back in when we find out more about when that might happen.

UPDATE #3: 2:30 PM
So, not much has happened since last report. B did go ahead and get the epidural, since she was really struggling with the muscle pain from her groin tear (she did the splits last night. Accidentally.) We're still stuck at 5 cm, and the baby seems to be higher up than he should be.

All in all, things are still going OK, but they're starting to worry that the baby needs to move down the birth canal at some point. His heart rate keeps dipping between contractions, so he needs to get his act together and start heading for home!

Oh, and we're going to add a contest to this post as well (why skip the contest just because we're having a baby?): who knows the real conclusion to the quote in the title? "Cometh the hour, cometh the ..." First person to post the correct answer in the comments section wins the point.

UPDATE #4: 5:15 PM
OK, so we're finally making some progress. After a long afternoon, B is finally at 9 cm and we're about to start pushing!

During the afternoon, the medical folks had a toughish time getting the Pitocin dosage lined up right, and either the contractions would fade or Matthew's heart rate would drop. Long story short, eventually B got to 9 and now the MD thinks we might get it done still.

UPDATE #5: 5:23 PM
Scratch that. After a few pushes, Matthew's heart rate is falling too fast for being as far in as he still is. MD thinks the baby is quite big, so we're headed for the OR to do a C-section.

UPDATE #6: 7:00 PM
Matthew is here! After an extremely quick C-section, prompted by the MD's perception that the baby was in trouble due to a dropping heart rate, he has arrived!

I was impressed by how fast they move when they think the baby is in trouble. From the time the decision was made to do a C-section, around 5:23, to the birth was less than 20 minutes.

Anyway, I suited up and scurried in just in time to see them slice B wide open. Within seconds, they plucked Matthew out, crying from the second he came out. He had apparently gotten his head slightly crooked, and wrapped the cord around his neck, which was what made his heart rate drop with each contraction. Thankfully, all went well, and both Mom and baby are safe and sound. More details on this whole thing at a later point.

Currently, B is trying to recover, feeling quite woozy and a bit nauseated. Matthew's in the nursery, where they're making sure everything's OK with him. Everything seems to be normal, and he weighed 8 lbs 5 oz/3.78 kg at birth. Length was 20.5 inches, I think, although I have yet to confirm that one. At any rate, I'll put some more pics and details on here when I get them.

As with most newborns, they're not that cute in the first few minutes of life, but here his head has started to return to a normal-looking shape and he's getting pink. I'll definitely get some more pictures when he gets to the room and we can get some more.

You can't see much of him here, but this is Mom, still with belly in twain, Dad, and little Matthew, curled up in a ball. Thanks for everyone who thought of us during this time, and please continue to remember B in her recovery!