Amelia Amber is here!

Amelia Amber Fairbank
Born 12/28/2008 12:07pm
5lbs 15oz, 19.5"

Amelia Amber Fairbank was born on Sunday, December 28th at 12:07pm. Brandy started having contractions about 20 hours before and started having strong contractions about 11am (Sunday). We debated about coming in, decided to, decided not to, and finally got in the car. On the way to the hospital (to get checked) Brandy wondered if we should go to the mall to walk around first. I said we better go to the hospital first.

That turned out to be the right decision...

Brandy said she wanted to walk into the hospital but about 1/2 way to the building she had another big contraction and I started to get a little concerned. When we got inside the building she said, "I'm going to need to push soon." I grabbed a wheelchair, she somehow sat down and I RAN. Unfortunately the wheelchair we got was a bit rickety and at any speed above a slow walk the right side would vibrate violently. We got in the elevator but couldn't remember what floor the Birthing Center was on. First we went to 4, then 5 with Brandy breathing and trying to not push.

At 5 there were a couple men drinking coffee in the lounge right outside the elevator and Brandy asked "Do you know where I'm supposed to go?" One of them took one look and said, "No, but I'll find out!" He dropped his coffee and ran to find a nurse. In the mean time I looked at the directory and found out we needed to go to the 3rd floor. We got back in the elevator and went to 3. There are probably still nurses looking for a woman having a baby on 5. ;)

You should have seen us navigating narrow, winding hallways at high speed with a violently vibrating wheelchair with a straining pregnant lady and her husband with two bags dangling all over. Somehow we got to the right place and the nurse at the desk said, "How can we help you?" (They didn't have any warning we were coming since I didn't stop to chat at the welcome desk) Brandy said, "I'm going to need to push soon." She calmly said, "What's your last name?" When she pulled out the card she said, "Oh... this is your fourth baby and you need to push..."

Immediately two other nurses RAN to find a room (they were really busy right then) and eventually we got the room of a woman scheduled to come in a little later. They wanted to weigh Brandy but there was no way she could stand up to get on the scale so we hurried to the room. The midwife was called and somehow Brandy managed to get on the bed. Brandy's water STILL hadn't broken but it did almost immediately. Two pushes later (one for the head, one for the rest) Amelia was born. We probably weren't in the room more than 5 minutes before she came out but somehow there were about 15 nurses and 2 doctors in the room. And no, despite the fact that she was in the building at the time, the Midwife didn't make it to the room on time.

All told, we arrived at the hospital at 11:48 and Amelia was born at 12:07. Good thing we didn't go walking at the mall... :)

Amelia and Brandy are doing great. We'll probably bring her home Wednesday morning.

Thanks to everyone for their love and support!!