Alison Jeanne

My water broke and contractions started at 1:15am on Monday morning. I (like usual) didn't really think it was real labor, even though the contractions were strong and immediately 5 minutes apart. I woke James up about a half an hour later and told him I was having contractions (but I have had many braxton hicks ones before so still didn't know if it was a big deal). I poked him again about 10 minutes later to let them know they were still coming. SO THEN he went downstairs with me and we both kind of looked at eachother for awhile : ) Then realized, we had taken all the car seats out of the van and were in the middle of washing to covers to reorganize and put them all back in the van so were were ready in a few weeks. So he shoved the covers in the dryer and then tried to "sleep"! I went downstairs and had to sew one last custom order ICKY Bag...it needed to get out in the mail if this was the real thing. I then called the doctor who said head to the hospital so at 2 am James and I were busy putting the covers back on the car seats and he installed them back into the van. I took a quick shower 'cause I knew that would feel better later on. Then we packed our bags and woke the kids up and headed to Grandma and Grandpa DeVries' house. We let them sleep until we were about 10 minutes away and then tried calling. Of course they didn't pick up the phone so I had to call several lines and yell into the answering machine before my dad finally heard and got up. We dropped the kids off quickly as I was in PAIN by this time. We headed right to the hospital from there and arrived around 4:30am. I was already dialated to a 4 when we got there and the contractions were only 3 minutes apart. Doctors and nurses were called in and we headed to the operating room about an hour later. I got a spinal (ahhh relief) and they went to town. Alison Jeanne arrived at 5:53am weighed 6 lbs. and 8 oz. and we believe was 18 inches long. We got to hold her for a few seconds and then she headed to the special nursury. Her breating has been monitored quite closely but she is definitly making steps in the right direction there. The next step will be feeding her. Right now they need to monitor that closely as well to make sure she can suck and takes enough food to keep her going and gaining weight. We should hear more from her doctors today!