Milo Est Arrivé!

On Monday April 24th, at 5:20 am, Jill woke up to the realization that her water had just broken. We didn’t really believe it at first (seems to be the recurring theme of our lives). Nevertheless, we called the doctor and made our way to the hospital (but not before I managed to snap a pic of Jillinpain).



Once at the hospital, we were informed that Jill would be constrained to the bed because the doctors feared that the umbilical cord might slip in below Milo. Much of our labor training relied on Jill's ability to move around, so, needless to say, we were a little distressed about this development. Yet Jill still wanted to give it a go without any medication.

Jill pre epidural:



When the doctor again checked Jill's cervix and informed us that she was still not quite six centimeters dilated (here we were hoping she was eight or nine), Jill decided that maybe the prospect of having an epidural sounded pretty good.

Jill post epidural:



Finally, after ten hours of labor (still short for a first birth), Jill pushed all 9lbs 11.4ounces of Milo out and into the world.



Here are a couple more pics from that first day:







More to come...

Alf as Baby Part 1

dropped

So, apparently, Milo is now engaged, or has "dropped" into birth position (head sideways and settled into the pelvic cavity). On to the visual evidence...

Before:





After:



Okay, I admit, those are not the best pictures for a comparison, but I'm working with loosely tied hands (as you can imagine, Jill is difficult to get in front of the camera and doesn't give her stamp of approval for every pic I take...not that she thinks these pics are good either, I'm told). Anyway...everything is going well. Jill is one centimeter dialated and will be 37 weeks along on Wednesday. We are carrying cell phones at all times and ready to drop everything to rush to the hospital.

And, yes, Zelda and I are well too: