Welcome!

This evening it was with great pleasure that I had the honour of witnessing the birth of Angel Leigh into the world. Goofball sent me a text at 2 to tell me it was time, and by 3:45 I was on my way up to Fort Morgan. The kids had to stay the night with a sitter, still don't know how I'll afford that, and I took off from work. Well... nearly got kicked out cuz I was incapable of work *l* When I reached the hospital Nickles was at 8 and the contractions were already starting to hurt through her epideral, that was about 5:15. By 6 she was begging to push but her doctor was in the next room delivering a baby who was busy crowning! Well her doc DID come in and Nickles spent a fevered 20 minutes (surely it seemed longer to her) pushing and crying and screaming (just a little, she's tough). I had the pleasure of witnessing it all as I held her leg and sometimes her hand, encouraging her to breath and push. She did magnificently, and Goofball didn't even faint (like many said he would, including himself) as he held her hand and watched the birth of his very first child. I watched in horror when the doc gave her an epesiotomy, but Nickles didn't seem to notice so I plastered an encouraging smile on my face as the scissors ripped through her flesh and blood flowed... Of course there was plenty of blood anyway.
You know, babies are ugly little alien cretaures upon first appearance. Angel was purple and covered in a whitish film, I was so scared she was still born from that purple coloring, but I of course didn't even hint at that. And as she lay on the warming table getting cleaned, wiped and rubbed her skin became a beautiful tan/pink, and she looked like what she was, a perfect little baby. Dark brown har and dark eyes (which will surely change). She does have horribly inturned feet, club feet which they already knew from the ultrasounds and which will be fixed through surgery before she would even be old enough to walk. The doctor examined and confirmed that it wasn't all that bad and would be easily fixed. Isn't modern medicine fantastic? 50 years ago she probably would have been crippled her whole life...
The doctor was kind enough to give me a tour of the placenta which I'd always been a bit curious about. I made notification phones calls and took first baby pictures (Nickles practically screamed for these even before she could hold her!) while mommy got sewed up and Daddy just beamed. I teared up and daddy and mommy cried. I was so proud and thankful for this opportunity. I admit to being jealous when another friend had been chosen to be in the room, but she didn't get there in time. She did seem very upset (ie mad) when she did get there though she didn't say anything, and she cheered up as the evening went on.
After some Arbys Nickles began to slur her words pretty bad and it was obvious she should have been sleeping quite a while ago, baby had left for a bath at the nursery. We all kissed and hugged her and left her alone. We caught Angel coming out of the nursery all prettied up, which is when the above picture was taken. She's 2 hours old in it. I was going to spend the night but it all happened so quickly I could be home by bedtime, and here I am! Better than leaving their house at 6 to be at work by 8! And I'll be back this weekend to help them out a bit around the house and make little Ember feel like an extra special big sister.
I'm outtie, gotta exercise and get to bed!
God bless and watch over our new little Angel