Chan's Baby Arrives

My sister Chandra had her baby last Monday, September 7. How cool is it that she had her baby on her exact due date, which also happened to be Labor Day?! She woke up the day before at 7 AM and was having contractions. They weren't too bad, so she decided to go to church. The contractions got a little more painful and closer together throughout the day, but they were manageable. Her water broke around 11 PM that night, so she took a shower, ate a bowl of Ramen (priorities, of course!), and then she and her boyfriend headed to the hospital.

I went to bed around the time they left for the hospital, and I naïvely expected there to be a baby by the time I got up the next morning. I thought, "Oh good, Chan will have her baby tonight, and then Mom and I will be able to go visit Chandra and the baby tomorrow." Well, it took a lot longer for the baby to arrive than I was expecting.

Chandra had been planning on trying to have her baby naturally. By around 2 PM she was still only dilated to 3 cm, and the nurse told her that it could easily take another six hours (or more) for the baby to arrive. Poor Chan was so exhausted since she'd gotten very little sleep since getting up at 7 AM the previous day, so she decided to get an epidural. No shame in that! By around 6 PM, Chandra was still only dilated to 4 cm, so her doctor thought it would be best to do a C-section, since it had been close to 20 hours since her had water broken. Chandra was prepped for the C-section and then taken to the OR.

The baby was born at 7:37 PM, and he weighed 7 lbs. 13 oz. and was 20¼ inches long. Chandra and her boyfriend, Joe, picked the name Christian Joseph for their baby. I've always liked the name Christian, so I approved. :)

My mom and I went to the hospital to visit Chandra and the baby the next day. I couldn't believe how well Chandra was doing just 18 hours after being cut open. She was even up walking around a little bit. That's pretty impressive since a C-section is major surgery! She showed us her incision and I couldn't even see it. It had just been glued shut, and it wasn't even covered with a dressing. It was great to see Chandra doing so well.

Christian is a really cute baby. Of course, he was really sleepy, but that was perfect for me, because that way I could just hold him on my lap without having him wiggle around, which is painful. He'll be too big and wiggly for me to hold on my lap before I know it, so I just enjoyed holding him.

Here's Christian at one week-old, and all ready for bed!