Maya Juliana Ristig

Well, the acupuncture worked and I woke up in labor at 1:06am. We got to the hospital around 2:30am, and I settled into the labor and delivery room convinced natural childbirth would be tough, but not too bad. I changed my mind. After about 4am the contractions were intolerable. I had no concept of time, and what time I was aware of was measured in the time before the next contraction. I decided the epidural was the way to go, and got some interesting news. Somebody else was in surgery for complications during labor, and they had no idea when the anesthesiologist would be available. I made sure I was first on the list when she was done! Five hours later I was hooked up. The yuckiest five hours EVER. Here's me having my last really painful contraction.
After the epidural, I was a much happier camper.
In the next two hours I dilated five centimeters and was ready to push. Pushing lasted about an hour-and-a-half, and ended with Sweet little Maya being placed on my chest.
It was AWESOME! Unfortunately, she had swallowed a bit of meconium, so the moment was short-lived. They sucked out her lungs at the little station on the other side of the room, and Pete stayed with her while they did what they needed to do there.

Check out that cone-head!
I had to get stitched up (I'll spare you the details), and when the surgeon was all done I got Maya back and we stayed together in Labor and Delivery for the next few hours before being moved to the Mother Baby Unit. We decided that she is the spittin' image of her Daddy, and that she also looks a little like an old Asian man. Here are some of the pictures we took there.





Maya was born at 1:06pm; exactly 12 hours after going into labor. She weighs 8 pounds, 2 ounces, and is 21-and-a-half inches long. She has strawberry blond hair that shines really red outside. Pete and I are totally in love with her, and couldn't have asked for a sweeter baby!