She's Here!

Hannah Rose Kerr
5 lbs. 9 oz.
19 inches long

born March 18 at 7:12 pm

So I woke up early Wednesday morning thinking my water broke. It didn't, but I still felt different somehow and thought maybe today was baby day. Although that was crazy because it was early (I was only 37.5 weeks) and firstborns usually come late. Plus we had already informed the baby that she was an April baby. I picked up some things at the grocery store and then headed to school to finish up my 3rd quarter grades. I'm on spring break right now, but I still hadn't finished my grades or made plans for the sub for my maternity leave. I pretty much worked on grades and lesson plans all day long only stopping for lunch. I was determined to get them done before I left so that I would have it crossed off my list. All day long I was also having contractions. They weren't really that painful or regular, though. I just figured it was false labor and pretty much ignored them. Around 4:30 I finally finished everything and drove myself home. By this time the contractions were getting painful. I couldn't wait to get home and soak in the bathtub. I thought that would make them go away. Steve got home around 5:00 and I suggested maybe he shouldn't go running. I got in the bath, and it made me feel better for about 10 minutes... then the contractions were back. By this time Steve had started packing (the hospital bag was on the list of things to do for Thursday!) and we were trying to time contractions. They were about 3 minutes apart and I decided that I should go to the hospital immediately. By the time we got in the car I knew I definitely needed to go to the hospital. The contractions were getting really bad and I felt like pushing. We got to the hospital around 6:45, I changed into a gown, and we asked to be prepped for an epidural. I was pretty tired of the contractions. They got my hand ready for the IV and then found out that I was already fully dilated and it was time to push. For those of you that aren't knowledgeable about babies, it is pretty unheard of to arrive at the hospital fully dilated for your first kid. Usually labor takes hours or days. She was out by 7:12...with no pain medication! I never thought I would do that. The whole thing was pretty shocking. Also, we barely had time to call our parents and tell them that we were in the hospital and then 30 minutes later to say we had a baby...and then our cell phone died. Of course. So then we couldn't call anyone. It was definitely not the way we thought it would be, but we feel really lucky that the hard part went by fast and now we have Hannah. Now it's the fun part. :)

About her name:
In 2nd grade Steve and I both remember reading the story "Hannah is a Palindrome". In the story, her teacher wrote that on the chalkboard and all the other kids teased Hannah until the teacher finally told them what it meant...and then they all thought she was really cool and wanted to be a palindrome, too. We talked about a lot of different names, but in the end we thought Hannah was good because it was pretty, classic, and a palindrome.
We chose Rose for her middle name after Steve's paternal grandmother: Velma Rose Kerr. Steve has always identified with Grandma Velma because she likes math (she was a math teacher) and she is athletic (she took a big bike trip in New England... even cooler than our bike trip across Missouri). Besides those things she has lots of qualities that I admire as well. We are hoping that our little Hannah Rose grows up to be just as amazing as her great-grandma.