The Baby has ARRIVED!

This past Monday, Nov. 30th, Taylor Christian Richard Smith was born at 4:51PM. He weighed 7 pounds and 14 ounces, and was 21 inches long, and in good health. Mama did a great job! She waited as long as she could before asking for an epidural, and they gave her one at 3:00PM. The nurse came in to check on her at 4PM, and got a big grin on her face and said "Honey, you are THERE! I've got to go call Dr. Roberts and tell him to hurry over. You are totally effaced and the baby's head is about 2" out of your cervix!" And Emily said she had the urge to push and the nurse said DON'T do it! Breathe through it. The nurse made an emergency call to Dr. Roberts, Emily's OB doc, and he hurried over from his practice in Blacksburg all the way to the Radford Hospital. And I called Michael on his cell phone and told him to hurry over - things had progressed RAPIDLY and Emily asked the nurse "am I going to have this baby by 5:00? And the nurse said YES! So Michael put the metal to the pedal and got there right after Dr. Roberts, and Dr. Roberts put on a sterile glove and checked her as soon as he got there, and said he was going to run and get into his sterile clothing, and Emily said she had to push and he said NO, wait until I get back! So Emily breathed through it again, and Dr Roberts got back at 4:35PM - he got to the hospital at 4:30PM. And Emily was finally allowed to push and she pushed with all her might and at one point she said she couldn't do it anymore, and Dr. Roberts said yes you can! The baby's head is out, and Emily couldn't believe it, and she pushed one more good hard long push and the rest of the baby came spilling out, and they wiped him up a little and put him on her chest, and she was bawling her eyes out. Tears of joy! I was operating the video camera, after having it shoved at me to be the camera person, and not knowing how to operate the camera!! I had to be given a quick lesson. The baby had a headful of black hair, and he was as cute as can be, a very good looking baby. And then the nurses took him, to clean him up real good, and to get his footprints, and to weigh and measure him, and to put the stuff in his eyes.
They put down his time of birth as 4:51PM. So from 4PM when she felt something funny about her butt, to 51 minutes later, she had the baby in her arms. She was able to nurse him, and luckily he knew how to latch on to drink. We all had tears in our eyes, and after nursing him and burping him, Emily rocked him to sleep and put him in the bassinette to call a few of her best friends to let them know she had the baby. She was scheduled to be induced that morning, but she had started having contractions on her own early in the morning. They were about 2 minutes apart on their way to the hospital. I came over at 1PM to be with her, and it had switched to back labor, and I knew what kind of hell that was, because that is what I had with her. And it was only when she felt like her spine was being ripped out of her back that she asked for the epidural. She did a real good job! We left after she ordered her dinner, and it came up, and the baby was nursing again. We had to get home to a houseful of dogs, ours and theirs, and it was late for their dinner time, and we didn't want a riot on our hands. I will never forget the site of the baby coming out of her - I tried to not get her private parts in the video, but to get as much else as I could. The whole day seemed to be surreal to me. But the hurry up and get here to Dr. Roberts, who was in with a patient, and to Michael, well, those were some worrisome minutes. After we came over on Tuesday morning to visit with them, and then left to come home, Emily called and asked me to go with Chris to get a bassinette for Taylor, as we could tell they were going to need one. It fit in the back of my SUV, and I drove it over to their house, and he carried it upstairs, for them to put in their bedroom when they got home on Wednesday. I'm bringing their dogs over to them after they call me this morning. They have a pediatrician visit this afternoon around 1:00. So if I don't hear from them this morning, I should this afternoon.
What an incredbile couple of days this has been. I can hardly wait to show him off to my friends.