Synopsis of the past 72 hours

Well, Joleen was scheduled to be induced on Friday 7/3 at 8:00 am. We received a phone call at 5 am from the hospital telling us to wait until noon because they were already pretty busy and short on nurses. So, we were a little irritated but whatever. So we went back to sleep. Joleen woke up at about 6:30 and couldn't really sleep any longer. She was hopping in the shower at 7 am when she began having contractions (real contractions, not the fake wimpy ones that she had before). So we called the hospital at about 8:30 and told them we were coming in now because she was having pretty bad contractions. We got to the hospital at 9:00 and by 11:00 they had placed Joleen's epidural. At 11:35, Jo's water broke. By 3:00 she was fully dilated. At 5:00 she started pushing and soon after got a little help from an oxytocin drip. At 7:00 on the dot, Natalee was born and we were very relieved and excited to finally have her. That was the first day.

Over the past few days, Natalee had little appetite, was showing symptoms of an infection, and was sleeping almost all the time. So, she received two antibiotics for 3 days and was receiving IV fluids. She began to perk up and eat a lot more starting on Sunday (after they scared us by putting in a feeding tube). Finally, today (Tuesday), the pediatrician said she could go home and she should be here around 6 or 7 tonight. VERY EXCITED and we feel very blessed to have such a beautiful daughter.