Callie Anne Kuchta

It's a girl!!!!! What a surprise - it was very cool not to know until the end, and most folks thought it was a boy so that made it even more fun. She was born at 9:02 p.m. last night, Wednesday August 22nd, and was 7 lbs 14 oz and 20 inches long. Black hair and HUGE feet are the first noticeable features ... except that she looks just like Lexi did! Can't wait to see her today to see if the resemblance is as strong as we think it is - little ball chin, cupid lips, precious. This beautiful picture was taken about 30 minutes after she was born.

It was a very long day - they broke her water and started the pitocin about 9 a.m., Christa was well on her way to monster contractions and asked for her epidural about 2:00. They stopped the pitocin to give her the epidural, and the machine malfunctioned so she was off the pitocin for two hours, during which time her contractions stopped completely. Then they had to start her over at the smallest dose so she basically lost the whole morning.

At about 6:00 p.m. she was so frustrated and discouraged - she was still only 3 cm and very posterior, which makes the dilation slow and had to change dramatically for things to progress. She was beginning to fear a c-section - once her water was broken she had to have the baby within 24 hours one way or another. We gathered round the bed and prayed for God to intervene, and He answered immediately! He contractions picked up and became strong and regular, the next check (a few minutes later) found her at almost 4 cm and ANTERIOR!! Thank you God! It was so amazing to have an immediate and clear response to our prayers.

Things got exciting after that - at 7:40 she was 5 cm, then she went from 5 cm to 8 cm to 10 cm in an hour. At 8:45 the nurse came in to "chat" - I felt so uncomfortable (in my "Mom spirit"), I couldn't sit still even though Christa said she didn't feel like she needed to push (I kept asking, annoyed her I'm sure.) Finally I asked her if she would let the nurse check her just to make me feel better! :) She said yes, told me she really loved me to let this happen, and yikes, the baby was RIGHT THERE! We left the room as the preparations began in earnest and she had to hold back the pushes until the doctor got there to catch the baby. She pushed four times and HELLO CALLIE!!

Lovely day. Can't wait to see her again today and to see Lexi and Mason with her. Lexi will be so happy to have a baby sister, although she is so set on calling her "Magenta" that she cried Tuesday when Christa told her that wasn't the name Mommy and Daddy had picked out. (If it was a boy she was going to name him "Popper." Where DOES she get this stuff?)

More pictures soon, I promise!!