Waiting for Pumpkin

I'll never forget when I got the text message from Bridget that she was in labor and at the hospital. The day I had been anxiously awaiting was finally here. I went into full panic mode, I had to get to the hospital, I called my Mom from the subway platform to let her know the time was here, pumpkin was coming! Of course this happened to be the one day that I was stuck in Manhattan for work. If I had been working from home I could have left at any point. All day I was a nervous and anxious wreak waiting for updates on how Bridget was doing and when pumpkin would be arriving. I never left go of my phone. I spent most of the day in radio silence with no updates. Finally right before it was time for to leave the city I finally got an update around 3:00, Bridget was 4-5 cm, so I hadn't missed anything yet. I impatiently headed back to Jersey to pack my bag up and get ready to drive to Long Island. I drove right to the hospital.

When I got there I was able to see Bridget, she was doing wonderfully. I learned that she had gone into labor early Wednesday morning, little did we know, and poor Bridget, that she would be in labor for a full 24 hours before little pumpkin finally arrived.  Bridget was doing great, such a trooper, drugs are good too. She was in some pain earlier in the day but the epidural quickly helped with that and she was feeling good, having contractions every 2-3 minutes. When the doctor came in around 8:15pm she was moving along and up to 9 cm. The doctor also sat her straight up to get the baby's head to drop a little bit more. At that point it created a bit more pressure so we left Bridget to labor, the next time we would see her is when she was a Mommy.

The gang all gathered by this point, around 8:30, as we awaited updates, which only seemed to be coming through Johnny's friend Joe D, whom Johnny texted with frequent updates while the rest of waited in suspense. We heard only 20 more minutes throughout the night continuously. As we tried to amuse ourselves in the waiting room downstairs we were quite the rambunctious bunch at times, trying to find things to watch or fill the time. 20 more minutes quickly turned in several more hours. Finally close to midnight we found out they would start pushing soon. Pushing was no easy feat as little Gabriella didn't quite want to come out and it took Mom 2 hours, but she was such a trooper and had a great coach in Johnny (and the doctor) she told us later.

As it neared the end, we went up to wait in the hallway outside the Labor & Delivery wing, all 8 of us in the hallway, and another 3 back behind the door who we also got updates through. When Johnny came out and told us in his typical Johnny fashion, "we're f****ed, it's a girl" proudly smiling. Mom, Dad and Baby were all perfect and that is how Little Gabriella arrived in this world :-)

 The proud dad coming out to tell us - And Grandma too!

She is clearly a good mix of her parents already, she arrived on time, like her Mommy always does, but didn't want to come out, that was clearly her Daddy's trait. But after 2 hours of pushing from midnight till 2am, Gabriella graced us with her beautiful presence. This is clearly going to be on loved and spoiled little girl. She had a huge fan club waiting for her arrival, and no one was the least bit bothered by the long wait, it was well worth it for all, for even just a short glimpse of her as she passed us in the hallway on the way to the nursery.

Gabriella Ann born October 6th at 2:01 am, 8 lbs 10 oz, 10 fingers, 10 toes and beautiful with a full head of hair too!