Almost a Smile!

She almost smiled for the camera.

More Video of Catie

Good morning Catie!

More Video of Catie

Here is a little video of Catie going through a range of expressions!

Short Video of Catie

This is a little video of Catie I took today. I wanted you all to see what I watch all the time!

Catherine Elizabeth Seagrave

I thought I had a lot to report last time I wrote. This time, I've had a baby!

I never could have known how much I would love this little bundle, or how much time could be taken up just staring at her little face. When I look at her everything else seems to fade away.

It was 6:30 am Friday morning when I assumed I was in intestinal distress due to too much sushi Thursday night. Funny though, the pains seemed to be very regular, about 2.5 minutes apart! I went back to bed hoping it would just go away. But it only seemed to get worse, and more regular. Hmmm.

I called my parents who were staying close by. My mom encouraged me to get to the hospital. I thought it might be better to wait a few hours. Thelabor and delivery nurse seemed to agree that I should wait at least an hour before calling back. By then, the phone had rung at least four times--both sisters calling!

At 10am, fater packing and calling the hospital, Mom, Dad, Patrick and I climbed in the car and went to St. Mark's, me having contractions every 2-3 minutes the whole way.

Patrick was so supportive, holding me through the contractions and helping me feel comfortable.

Our tirp was cut short when the nurse told me I was only 1 cm dilated, and that my contractions were not strong enough to be real labor. It would seem that I was not really in labor yet, and she suggested I either take a bath and try to relax it away, or walk around and do squats to try to bring labor on. (incidentally, this advice cost my insurance company $500). It turned out I didn't need to do either. We went to breakfast at Mimi's instead, and I continued to have even stronger contractions 2-3 minutes apart until I just couldn't sit there anymore and Patrick took me home. There the contractions continued to get stronger until finally we went back to the hostpital at about 5:30 PM. We didn't take pictures this time. After 11 hours of labor, I was now shaking pretty hard through them and was in no mood for ceremony. This time we parked at the door and were led to a room on entry.

My first words to the nurse were: "I don't want to do natural childbirth anymore." I'd had enough nature. Unfortunately the anesthesiologist had just gone into a c-section and we waited until 7:45 pm for the epicdural By that time the monitor showed my contractions, still 2 minutes apart, were at the top of the scale and I was dilated 6 cm, so I don't mind thinking I have a pretty good idea of what childbirth feels like. The epidural was great. Patrick and I called a few peope, I took a nap, Patrick had dinner, and we watched Ella Enchanted while I labored peacefully.

At 1:00 am it was time to push. I was doing pretty well, but Catie wasn't budging and her heartrate seemed irradic. The doctor scared me by talking baout c-sections and foreceps. Maybe his plan was to scare me into pushing harder, because after that everything seemed to move much more smoothly...until we noticed about 2:00 that the epidural bag was empty!

So we continued on, hoping she'd come out before the drugs wore off. At 3 am it appeared that the drugs were pretty well worn off and the anestheiologist was busy. Everyone says I pushed really well. Patrick was a great Coach and Alicia (my nurse) was very encouraging, and Dianat he midwife did a great job keeping me pushing throught he end of each contraction. Only a small episiotomy was necessary. The epidural was finally refilled at 3:15, just minutes before Catie squeezed into the world all pink and beautiful. Patrick quickly cut the cord as the NICU team whisked her away to sucktion her lungs and I waited the longest 10 minutes of my life, being stiched up as I watched my baby on the other side of the room.

Finally patrick carried her back to me and I got to hold her for the first time. It was love at first sight.