Continuation.

So, no drugs for the lady, and although my wife was in a lot of pain due to the contractions, she still had to make a crack about the guy. The contractions got to be more severe, and one of the nurses suggested forced labor or some such thing, whereby two nurses are supposed to hold back her legs during her contractions and my wife was supposed to push like a crazy person. I decided to abandon my PG rating and go right for the R rating, because I know my wife wouldn't be able to see something like that ever. In fact, during Alex's birth, I was so focused on my wife that I didn't actually see Alex come out, I just saw him shoot out and slide across the bed.

About 16 minutes of pushing, I started to see Zoe's head. She had hair, and I also marveled in utter fear about how her body, let alone her tiny little head, was going to fit through there. It's a cliche saying, but damnit all to hell, it looks like it bloody hurts. When Zoe's head finally popped out, the good doctor had to move the cord, which was slightly around her neck. The doctor was starting to suction out her nose when Zoe just began to slip out on her own.

Then the cleaning, suctioning, shots, wiping, sewing, injecting, probing and everything took place, and while my wife was being taken care of, I stayed with Zoe, videotaping her first goop, her first shots, and all that good stuff. I called immediate family at around midnight to let them know about Zoe's birth (everyone was sleeping.) and about an hour later, I stopped home to post those pictures on the blog.

My first impressions? Zoe looks a lot different than Alex. She's got a slightly longer face, and her cheeks are a little chubbier. She hasn't opened her eyes quite as much, and she's definitely a little more needy than her brother. She wants to be breastfed constantly, even if she's not hungry. She didn't cry a lot the first day, but she's crying more now. She's spent more time in the nursery than her brother because of that reason, because Mom needs a few hours of good sleep.

Needless to say, our sleeping pattern has already been altered. We went to sleep last night after Zoe went to the nursery at 9pm - which is a rarity for the both of us. The only time we'd do that would be if we traveled to a different time zone, and was drugged and knocked unconciousness. We slept till 3am, when the nurse bought the baby back in to nurse. She was taken to the nursery again at around 4:30, and then I woke up to a terrible dream - a parent's nightmare - at 6:30 am and headed home, so that I could watch Alex after Maralise went to work. Brendon's still here, but he hasn't got a lot of experience with babies. Which most guys don't unless they have significantly younger siblings.

So, hopefully she'll be released from the hospital today. She is scheduled to have her tubes tied this afternoon, but hopefully she'll be out of there after that. It's harder with this delivery also because we didn't have a 11-month old to worry about last time. Again, special thanks to Brendon and Maralise who spent the last two days taking care of Alex. It would've been really difficult if he was there at the hospital with us. He's such a busy little boy.

That should get me caught up for a while. I'll post a link to more photos later!