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Alice arrived at 17:43 this evening at 19 inches and 6 pounds, 14 ounces. Mom’s primary remark “that was very strange”.

After we arrived at the hospital at about 11 AM, there was some concern that Mom wasn’t progressing very fast, possibly even that she was experiencing false labor. However, she did dilate to about 3 cm on her own. The doctor arrived around 3 pm and checked things out. She decided to hurry things along a bit by breaking Mom’s water.

Mom started having some more severe contractions shortly afterwards, which was a good sign. Around 5:30 the contractions got a little stronger and the nurse came in to check on progress. Mom was about 5 cm dilated at that point. The primary nurse, Stacey, commented that she wanted us to finish by the end of her shift at 7 pm, but Mom didn’t look hagard enough to make that likely.

About 10 minutes later Mom started having some serious contractions. I called the nurses in (three of them showed up). They told Mom not to push, which she tried to do but it was too much. After a few contractions Stacey arrived and all together they rolled Mom over on to her back near the end of a contraction. Mom claimed she felt something as a nurse said “there’s a head!”.

At this point there was clearly no holding back on the pushing. The next contraction put most of Alice out and the nurses pulled her the rest of the way. Mom and the nurses were somewhat stunned at this turn of events. Mom didn’t have more than 7 or 8 major contractions before it was over.

Alice was definitely a purplish blue when she came out and had a bit of difficulty breathing. The nurses gave her oxygen for a bit and she turned very red and then pink. She was a bit premature, but if so and still was almost seven pounds, she would have been huge if she’d hung on till the original due date.

Alice had a good head of hair and furry shoulders. Mom’s first question was “is she furry?” and Stacey was able to confirm this.

My mom called just before 6, or about 10 minutes after the delivery, just to check in. She was a bit stunned when I told her it was all over. Her first question was, of course, “is she a blue eyed girl?”.

The nurses fussed with Alice for about 45 minutes and then turned over to Mom for dinner. Mom tells me that the last sonogram showed Alice sucking in the womb. Mom hooked Alice up and Alice started feeding within moments. That reflex is fully functional.

Mom and Alice are doing fine. Mom was a bit stressed by the rapid delivery (“that was very weird, Alice”, she says). Mom even let me hold Alice for a little bit after she was done feeding.