Introducing.....

Our daughter, Kaitlyn Ahn Mee Cho was born Wednesday, August 27th at 1:45pm! She weighed in at 6lbs, 12 ounces and is 20 inches long. Here are the details of what happened:

I started having contractions earlier at 4:30am at about 15 minutes apart, then 5 minutes apart at 6:30am. These contractions came so fast and hard...very painful!! We threw our bags into the car and called my in-laws to pick up Nathan around 8:00am, then arrived at Abington Hospital at 8:30am. Thankfully I was already at 5-6cm, so I made it in time to get the epidural. I received the epidural shot which was only enough to relieve the pain of my contractions. There was enough pain so that I was able to direct the pushing towards Kaitlyn so that it only took 30 minutes to push her out. It took 3.5 hours for me to deliver Nathan in comparison. We came to the conclusion that it took longer for Nathan only because I received too much of the epidural solution and felt nothing below the waist. I guess for some people like us, pain is "good" in childbirth! With all that said, we're really happy (and surprised I must admit) that God answered ALL of our prayers!

Any day....

As of yesterday I’m now 2cm and 80% effaced, so any day now. We’ve been busy nesting, cleaning and packing away. We’ve been blessed with so many people who gave us all their girl clothes that’ll last the next year…this girl has a lot more clothes than Nathan ever had and I think even more clothes than me!

I’m a bit nervous for some reason about the labor and delivery. So many thoughts of what could go wrong – bad anesthesiologist, not making it in time to get the epidural, another 3 ½ hours of pushing, getting an emergency C-section, getting an impatient doctor/nurse, complications with me and/or the baby, etc. Also, we decided to deliver at another hospital (Abington) instead of going back to where Nathan was born and where my mom works. For those of you who know the story of what happened, we didn’t want another repeat of what happened last time and wanted to avoid the stress and pressure because my mom worked there. But for some reason these days, I’m feeling guilty and apprehensive because we’re going to a hospital where everything is unfamiliar, I won’t be getting special treatment and I don’t have “inside” information on certain doctors. But I keep trying to remind myself that Abington is a good hospital and that God is in control of everything. I’ll keep you posted and am hoping I go very soon. Thankfully the weather has been beautiful the past few days that we even turned off our A/C….I think of that movie “Father of the Bride Part 2” where the pregnant mother and daughter are on the couch boiling hot asking for more A/C while Steve Martin is freezing and wearing his winter coat & hat….before I was pregnant, I thought that scene was ridiculous, but now I can totally relate!

37 Weeks and Counting

So far pregnancy is going well and am now ready to go anytime. My bag is almost packed and I just need to launder the baby’s clothes. The doctor thinks I’ll go 1-2 weeks early…hopefully that’ll happen as my mom gave birth to me and my sister @ 39 weeks and I gave birth to Nathan @ 39 weeks too. Doctor said I was still 0 cm, but starting to efface. The first time around I was @ 0 cm until the 3 days b4 I gave birth to Nathan…I dilated from 0-5 cm within a matter of 3 days so for me, the dilation is not a good indication of when I’ll go. My only complaint is the itchy stomach and swollen legs/feet…the heat and extra weight is not helping. I’ve already gained 26 lbs and hopefully won’t gain anymore…in actuality, it’s more like 36 lbs since I never did lose those last 10 lbs from the first pregnancy. The doctor thinks I’ll have a tiny baby, so I was happy about that…the smaller the better! When I tell some people that, they look at me like they can’t believe it…people still ask me if I’m having twins! I hate it when everybody thinks they’re doctors.

We’re spending the last few days/weeks together as a family of 3. Dan and I were both sad one day when we realized it won’t be just us and Nathan anymore. Last week I took my only day off from work this year to go to the beach together. We went to Manasquan, NJ which is a lot cleaner than the other NJ beaches….not much to do in terms of entertainment and family as they don’t have a boardwalk, but it was very quiet. I was perfectly fine without a boardwalk since I can’t walk too much anyway. Nathan was a bit sad when we left….we caught him looking reflectively at the ocean while we were packing up our things. I’ll post pics later.

Off on another date night to see the X-Files movie tonight. The critics didn’t give it great reviews, but I’m such a fan. I’ll let you know my thoughts. And don’t see Wanted in the theater….bad storyline and it was so outlandish. Some cool action scenes, but I felt like they copied a little bit of Matrix….save it for a rental if you want to see it.