All is well, we can breathe easy again......

Ok so we finally made it home. Jen and Mathilde are both doing very well.

Jen's parents came over to meet their Granddaughter. It was awesome to see them meet her for the first time. Mathilde has this charm that really seems to stick.

My mom is on her way too. I will be happy to see her hold my baby. Here are a bunch of pics that will entertain until I find time to post again. I will try to keep the blog going with updates and what not.

I will not post nearly as often, there was a lot going on that required constant updates.

My wife and my baby are completely healthy. I am so incredibly lucky to have this gift.

Thanks for all the well wishes and for paying attention to the blog. I knew you all were rooting for us.

Mathilde Annabelle Kirk

Our daughter was born on Tuesday January 27, 2009 @ 8:17AM.
The baby is completely healthy, and Jen is doing just fine.
I cut the cord. That's right. I rocked it.
Words cannot describe what we are feeling right now so I am going to stop typing.
Here are some pics and videos:

Almost here

Jen is pushing now. I saw the head. The baby has dark hair. This is amazing.

The moose is soon to be loose.

Jen is back on the pitocin, only to speed things up. She is 9 inches dilated and +1, this means that the baby is very low in the pelvis. She is not experiencing any pain, the only drawback to that is that her legs are dead weight.
I will have pics of our daughter as soon as she is born.
We are excited to say the least.
All for now....

Time to let nature take its course.

Since Jen is completely effaced and 5 centimeters dilated there is no need to use pitocin for the remainder of her labor. They stopped the pitocin for the epidural and want to let the baby come out naturally.
I have no idea if the above statement makes sense. Jen and I are going to get some sleep. I imagine our moose will be born sometime in the early morning. I am going to say 7AM.
Will I be correct? We shall see.....

Making Progress

Just so everyone knows, the time stamp on these blog entries are approximately 2 hours behind Chicago time. Now on to the post....

Jen is holding up very well. She is now @ five centimeters and one hundred percent effaced. For awhile we were thinking that her cervix was made of concrete because it simply would not budge. She is completely numb, I have to move her legs for her. The epidural is certainly doing its job.
I am tired at this point so forgive me if my blog entries from here on out contain random thoughts, poor grammar, etc.
I know I have said it before but Jen is amazing. I have no idea how she is dealing with all this. I think she has slept about 3 hours since we arrived here.
More to come later.....

One quick word about the staff here:
Everyone here is very attentive and thorough. The nurses we have really seem to care, and they quite literally don't miss a (heart) beat.

Ok this is enough!!!

She gave it one hell of a go......
And I am thoroughly impressed. Jen is so completely tough, but even she could not hold up to the power of 10ML per hour pitocin. After having 4 contractions back to back and almost passing out, she agreed to the epidural. I for one am relieved to see her get it. Things should be a bit more manageable from here on out. I am shocked that it took 3 hours for her to finally agree to it.
I will post again once the epi is administered.