An earthling has landed.

I was up at 4am to meet Jeanette at the hospital at 5. She got there, was given pitocin, and had her water broken. She had an epidural around 10, and we slept for awhile. The whole labor was pretty uneventful until the baby started having variable decelerations in her heart rate. At that time Jeanette was dilated to 8, and they turned down the pitocin and turned her on her side. The heart rate kept dropping, but by the time they checked her again she was at a ten and ready to push.


She pushed twice and they decided to use the vacuum to get the baby out since her heart rate was still kinda crazy. It was still relatively calm, and Jeanette started pushing while the vacuum was applied. All of a sudden there was a piercing sound from the machine, and the baby's heart rate just stopped. The doctor started screaming that the baby was stuck, to push harder, and for someone to call a code. 6 people came running in and a woman junped on top of Jeanette and started pushing down HARD on her stomach. Everyone was yelling, Jeanette was screaming and crying, and the doctor was standing up and PULLING, trying to get Mariah out. Finally, after what seemed an eternity, she popped out (without needing to break her collarbone). She was the darkest shade of blue I've ever seen. Fortunately her heart came back on it's own and she started screaming a few moments later. She's been fine ever since.

It was terrifying for sure. At the time, I wasn't panicking, just helping pull her legs back and push on her stomach. But afterwards it was like a truck hit me and I couldn't stop crying.

Anyway, here she is in all her glory, after giving the world hell without even being completely born yet.
(and yes, that star was edited in on the computer...something about putting naked babies on the internet seems weird).