Introducing: Hayley Olivia Tuttle

Born at 6:04 PM on Saturday, the 21st of February, 2009. Hayley weighed in at 8 pounds, 4 ounces and she was 20.5 inches long.

As you can probably imagine, the past 5 days have been, umm... Actually, there aren't enough adjectives in the English language. As of midnight Saturday, Miranda had truly begun labor and Hayley's arrival was imminent. 16 hours later, the doctor informed us that normal delivery looked unlikely. She made her final decision about an hour after that, diagnosing cephalopelvic disproportion. Basically, Hayley's head was a little too big to fit through Miranda's pelvis. The cervix had only dilated to about 5cm and it wasn't going to get any bigger. Sadly, the only option remaining was a cesarean section.

After spending 48 slow and agonizing hours in the hospital, the next few simply flew by. Miranda was prepped for the c-section while I engaged in my own frantic preparation. Then the moment we had been waiting for finally arrived. Our daughter was born. All the cliches you hear about this are completely true. There really are no words to describe it. Even in the surgical situation of a c-section, the event was beyond anything I could have imagined. I nearly fell over when they first showed Hayley to me. How I managed to hold up a video camera, I will never know.

Between then and now, more has happened than I could possibly cover in one post, so I will leave that for later. We've got plenty of pictures up, so click here.

Or maybe she won't...

February 20th is officially over and we remain babyless. Turns out Miranda didn't get to start on the Pitocin until about 10pm, rather than the 10am or earlier that we were hoping for. The first 12 hour dose of Cervidil failed to soften the cervix, so another 12 hour dose was administered.

Despite the longer than expected time spent in the hospital, the lack of sleep and the extreme frustration of the past 24+ hours, I'm feeling pretty excited. The Pitocin is in and the contractions are ramping up. Of course, this means Miranda is not feeling so much excitement as she is feeling pain.

Luckily, this means there is little possibility that we'll be waiting another day. Hayley should arrive exactly on her due date. Go Hayley! It's your birthday!

She's going to be a day early

With the due date looming only a few days away, we've decided to induce. We are so ready for Hayley to finally be born and we no longer need a medical reason to induce. The doctor wasn't going to let us go more than a couple days past the due date anyway, so here we are. On Thursday at 5pm, we'll arrive at the hospital and get to work!

The first order of business will be the application of Cervidil, a cervical softener. Then, at some point (depending on how well Miranda responds to the Cervidil), they'll break her waters and give her Pitocin to start labor. We're hoping for labor to begin Friday morning and Hayley to be born later that day!

Parenthood officially begins this weekend. It's been quite a journey up to this point. It seems like we've been waiting for this forever, but now that it's really about to happen, I'm not sure how to feel. I'm almost relaxed. We've done so much preparation, the last couple weeks have basically just been killing time. But shouldn't I be freaking out? I guess we'll see how things go at the hospital. One thing I am sure of: Friday is going to be the best day of our lives.