Phoebe was born at East Jefferson Hospital in Metairie, Louisiana. She arrived on Tuesday, December 20, 2005 @ 8:51am. I went in the night before and they induced labor. The due date was originally on Christmas Eve but since Hurricane Katrina, the hospital in St. Bernard Parish was gone. So if I were to go into labor, we were 45 mins from the nearest hospital. And I was a little nervous about being surprised because of that and it was my first baby. So what if I missed the signs? Anyway... we decided to induce. I went in for 8pm on Monday, December 19th. My hubby and my sister Aggie spent the night with me. The room was great, it was huge and just me and my guests! I expected a lot less, so it was nice. At the time of delivery, I weighed 176lbs! Yes, I gained 61lbs during pregnancy and I'm still fighting to lose some of it, lol. I want to say I started to dialate somewhere around 3am, then when they came in at 8am to check on me, I was fully dialated and ready to go! My hubby and two of my sisters, Aggie and Angel, were in the delivery room with me. It was the same room we started out in. They set up a mirror so I could watch but I was working too darn hard to pay attention! :o) It was very difficult and painful, my Dr eventually said "would you like some help?" ... uhm... hello?!?! You're JUST NOW asking me this? Of course I want help. So we had some assistance with the forceps, she was out within a minute or two. They held her up and I looked at my sisters grabbing their hands saying "she's here she's here, it feels like a dream!". I don't even know where my hubby was at this point. I know he had to leave the delivery room because he couldn't take it. He said it was because he couldn't handle seeing me in pain and he felt so helpless. Not to mention he can't handle icky stuff, lol. I believe he followed the nurses with Phoebe and watched her get cleaned up and weighed. She was 19" long and weighed 6lbs 11oz. They brought her back and handed her to me. I looked at her and never realized you could love someone that much that you barely know. And just by looking at her for a second, I saw that her name fit her perfectly. No words could ever truly explain the joy I felt when holding this little girl. And I thank God for giving us such a perfect angel. We are truly blessed.
We were obviously anxious to get home with our bundle of joy! My doctor said that I could leave first thing in the morning. However, the hospital lost my shot records so they had to do a test all over again and we had to wait hours for the results before they were able to release us. So, due to their mistake, we didn't leave until 6pm, if not later.
