Sweet Gabrielle

Gabrielle Aaliyah Panameno finally came! She was born at 3:34 AM on Monday, August 11. She weighed 8 pounds, 13 ounces and was 21 1/4 inches long. She's a big baby... almost a pound heavier than we expected. (Michelle was 7 pounds 15 oz. and Ella was 7 pd. 11 0z.)

I had contractions off and on Sunday evening (but I'd been having them off and on all week). At 11, I went to bed to see if I could sleep/if they would continue or stop. At about midnight, I woke up from fitful dozing and was having contractions still. I got up, showered, walked around and decided I should wake Alfredo and head to the hospital. We left a little after 1, dropped the girls off at Janene's (they were wide awake and excited) and got to the hospital about 2:15. By then my contractions were only about 2 minutes apart. After signing in and everything, they examined me and said I was dilated to a four. We were a little disappointed, but oh well. By 3:10, the contractions were right on top of each other and I really thought I would need an epidural. They thought maybe I was dehydrated and gave me fluids to see if that would slow the contractions down. I told myself to wait 10-15 minutes before asking for an epidural. I had Alfredo help me onto my left side. Within minutes, I felt like I needed to go to the bathroom. I knew this is often a sign that you're ready to push, but since I was only a four about 40 minutes before, I figured that couldn't be right. So Alfredo called the nurse and I told her. She checked me and sure enough, I was a 10. They didn't expect that and started busily calling the doctor and preparing for her birth and making me breathe through contractions which became increasingly difficult. My water broke and there was meconium in it which worried them so they called the NICU. Soon it was obvious that Gabrielle was coming, so they called in a resident because the doctor still wasn't there. (When they'd first called him, I'm sure they figured it would be several hours until I delivered). So the resident delivered Gabrielle. She was born about an hour after I was first examined. Pretty quick! But we did make it to the hospital this time! :) And while Gabrielle's 1 minute Apgar score was low and she had swallowed a little meconium, by 5 minutes her Apgar score was a nine. I was able to hold her about 10 minutes after she was born and she nursed immediately and has been nursing well ever since. Her sisters adore her, especially Ella. Here are a bunch of photos. My three sweet girls
me, a few hours before going into labor, 40+ weeks pregnant
gotta love my hair... I don't ever look pretty after giving birth, don't know how some people can... this was about 20 minutes after Gabrielle was born

going home
going home
Alfredo with Gabrielle