This morning, I was awaken from a deep sleep by my wife. That's her in the picture. It was 5 a.m. "Get up, we need to go to the hospital," she said. So I got up, slapped on yesterday's pants and moseyed on out to the car to defrost the windshield. It was pretty cold outside and the sun wasn't up yet.
We were scheduled to call the hospital this morning at 6:30 to see about an induction for the second day in a row. Fortunately, nature took care of things for us. Gretchen said she had been up since about 3:30 a.m. having pretty good contractions. So off we went.
Gretchen got all hooked up to her machines, and sat around for awhile having contractions. Things were progressing slowly, so I went down to Java City and got some reinforcements, and made sure I was up to date on my live tweeting of the birth.
By noontime, I was started to get bored. So I started playing with all the buttons and knobs on their expensive machines. I only broke this one. Don't tell anyone, I hear it's new.
The epidural Gretchen had put in worked pretty good. She even napped a little before baby arrived. And speaking of babies ...
Here she is: Grace Johanna Steinke (Gracie or Gracie Jo for short). She was in the birth canal a little sideways, so she needed some vacuuming to help get her out. The doctor tried to turn her around, but she was having none of it. Stubborn to the last second. Once the vaccum was attached, she came out pretty quickly.
She was delivered at 2:33 p.m. She was 7 pounds, 13.6 ounces and 20.5 inches. Quite a bit smaller than
Augie was.
The nurses got her cleaned up a little and took her footprints.
See, tiny little footprints.
Then mom got to hold her for a bit ...
... and look at her scrunchy little face.
I got to hold her, too ...
... before the parade of guests started arriving. Maybe I shouldn't have live tweeted the birthing. Aunt Marcie came to visit.
Grandma Steinke came to visit.
Grandma Westerhoven came to visit.
Aunt Lauren came to visit.
And even Augie came to visit. Gretchen's co-worker dropped by briefly too with her husband and daughter to take a picture to circulate around Gretchen's school, but none of them held Gracie, so they didn't have their picture taken.
Now that Gracie is here, I can show you the last pieces of her room, too. Gretchen decorated some wooden letters to hang on the wall by her crib. We left the screws in the wall, but took the letters back down after we got them all lined up. I should probably go hang them back up before Gracie gets home.
She also made some flowery frames to hang above the changing table. After a couple of nights at the hopsital, mom and Gracie will be home. Until then, just call or text if you want to see her.
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