"Welcome to Earf."

When I held my newborn little girl in my arms today, I couldn't help but think of the little girl in the movie The Family Man who thought her dad had been replaced by an alien and said "Welcome to Earf." Today we were able to welcome Aani to Earf in a smooth fashion. We were told to expect a call between 8 and 9 to let us know when to come in. Instead, at 6:19 AM we got a call saying we had to be in by 7 or we'd be moved to the end of the list. I was half asleep but I heard Katrina mumbling "Last in line... you can kiss my grits!" Fortunately she had already hung up that point.
The rest happened pretty quickly. The oxytocin started at 8 and around 11:30 she had dilated to a 4. At 11:40 she asked me to call the nurse because she was feeling a lot of pressure. The nurse checked and, sure enough, she had dilated completely (to 10 cm). That's crazy: 4cm to 10cm in 10 minutes? Anyway, she pushed for about 15 minutes and at exactly noon, little Aani was born, weighing in at 7lbs, 5oz and measuring 19" long. She's our biggest baby yet. Katrina's doing great and Aani is incredibly healthy, cute, quiet and happy. We're amazed and excited.
Although I watched Anders and Addie enter this world without so much as a stomach cringe, this round was not so easy for me. When she started pushing, I started feeling light headed. Of course, being semi-retarded, I chose to keep watching rather than look away even though I knew it could lead to my demise. Sure enough, the ringing in my ears began and then grew louder. My vision became dark but I never actually lost it. I was trying to take pictures (tasteful ones) but I was afraid if I didn't put the camera down I would drop it. Katrina noticed my condition and when I was asked to cut the cord, she hesitated and asked if I could see it. I could and, though quite out of it, I managed to successfully cut Aani's cord (as I have with Anders and Addie) and not cut the doctor or Aani. I then had to sit down. For a long time. The doctor didn't seem to notice my state and said "You can go over and say hi to your baby, you know" to which I replied "Actually, I can't. If I try to stand up I'll pass out." I felt terrible sitting there while our new daughter was across the room being cleaned up by a stranger. I wanted to go over and comfort her but I suffer from Wussy-Stomach-Itis so I wasn't able to so much as stand up. I was dripping sweat, 50% deaf and 50% blind. At one point I nearly bolted to the bathroom to hurl. Fortunately I held it all in and after 10 or 15 minutes had pretty much recovered. I sure am a wuss when it comes to blood and medical yucky stuff.
So thanks for all of your kind words, thoughts and prayers. We're thrilled to have such a healthy mom and baby. Oh yeah, and Courtney- the high scores I see on Bubble Breaker are 456 for standard play and 1078 for the MegaShift version. We're pretty sure Anders scored the 456. Seriously.