She's here!! Our beautiful little princess is here or as my brother calls her "The Heiress to Awesomeness" :) We're overjoyed, filled with love, completely smitten and totally in awe.Radler Nikita was born Tuesday, December 8, 2o09 at 4:37pm. She was 19
inches long and weighed 6 pounds, 12 ounces. First, thank you sooo much for all the texts, emails, phone calls and well wishes. As I've said since the beginning, this little girl is so lucky to come into the world with the love and support that you all provide. She's so fortunate to have you all in her life! I haven't been able to get back to you all individually, but we've received all the correspondence and every message makes us smile. Juddy and I read them back and forth to each other, or put them on speaker phone, as to not miss anything. Thank you all! We spent the first few days after the delivery in the hospital and, due to swine flu, we were not allowed to have any visitors. Therefor, the well wishes we received from most of you meant that much more to us as we recovered from the labor.
inches long and weighed 6 pounds, 12 ounces. First, thank you sooo much for all the texts, emails, phone calls and well wishes. As I've said since the beginning, this little girl is so lucky to come into the world with the love and support that you all provide. She's so fortunate to have you all in her life! I haven't been able to get back to you all individually, but we've received all the correspondence and every message makes us smile. Juddy and I read them back and forth to each other, or put them on speaker phone, as to not miss anything. Thank you all! We spent the first few days after the delivery in the hospital and, due to swine flu, we were not allowed to have any visitors. Therefor, the well wishes we received from most of you meant that much more to us as we recovered from the labor. And that brings me to the labor....as many of you know it didn't go exactly as 
planned. It turns out my body is amazing for carrying babies, however not so awesome when it comes to delivering them. We had planned on a natural labor (yes that means un-medicated). With all the research that I had done, it seemed the healthiest way to go. Women have been delivering babies for thousands of years without assistance so why couldn't I? Besides, as you labor and the pain increases to unbearable levels, normal bodies release hormones that say "get this baby out of me". You open up more and out pops a baby. Story of my life, though, turns out I'm not "normal". I got to the hospital at about 3 am and was a "stretchy" 3 cm dilated, which I'd been for days, with contractions about 2 to 3 minutes apart. They admitted me and Juddy, my doula Mel and I hunkered down in the delivery room. Mel was absolutely amazing and Juddy was a observant learner; he's even help me breath through contractions (see picture). We breathed and giggled when we weren't breathing through the pain. About 4 hours into it, I hit the depths of despair but found a second wind, composed myself and attacked the contractions again. However, after 9 hours of this hard, un-medicated labor I was only 4 am dilated. FOUR!!??! I was completely distraught. I was sure I could do a few more hours, but at this rate I'd have been in labor until Christmas. After much debate we decided to have an epidural. After 3 more hours I still hadn't progressed at all, so they started other interventions. I'll spare you the gory details but at one point I looked like the Borg; bladder catheter, uterus catheter, heart probe on the babies scalp, internal contraction probe, two IV's, epidural to the spine, heart rate monitor, blood pressure monitor and an oxygen mask to boot.
planned. It turns out my body is amazing for carrying babies, however not so awesome when it comes to delivering them. We had planned on a natural labor (yes that means un-medicated). With all the research that I had done, it seemed the healthiest way to go. Women have been delivering babies for thousands of years without assistance so why couldn't I? Besides, as you labor and the pain increases to unbearable levels, normal bodies release hormones that say "get this baby out of me". You open up more and out pops a baby. Story of my life, though, turns out I'm not "normal". I got to the hospital at about 3 am and was a "stretchy" 3 cm dilated, which I'd been for days, with contractions about 2 to 3 minutes apart. They admitted me and Juddy, my doula Mel and I hunkered down in the delivery room. Mel was absolutely amazing and Juddy was a observant learner; he's even help me breath through contractions (see picture). We breathed and giggled when we weren't breathing through the pain. About 4 hours into it, I hit the depths of despair but found a second wind, composed myself and attacked the contractions again. However, after 9 hours of this hard, un-medicated labor I was only 4 am dilated. FOUR!!??! I was completely distraught. I was sure I could do a few more hours, but at this rate I'd have been in labor until Christmas. After much debate we decided to have an epidural. After 3 more hours I still hadn't progressed at all, so they started other interventions. I'll spare you the gory details but at one point I looked like the Borg; bladder catheter, uterus catheter, heart probe on the babies scalp, internal contraction probe, two IV's, epidural to the spine, heart rate monitor, blood pressure monitor and an oxygen mask to boot.
again, my body was not interested in doing what it was suppose to. Mel said she's never seen anyone push so hard in all the labors she'd attended!! Radler would come down a little, and then retract back up. However, after each time her heart rate would dip. After 30 minutes, the OB came in. She looked at me and said, "they call me when things are going wrong so I'm going to lay out your options for you. First, we could try forceps, but here are the risks (blah blah blah) and I can't guarantee I can get the baby out that way or we can try a c section with these risks (blah blah blah) and I know I can get the baby out. Normally, I would opt for the forceps first, but with your circumstances I have no faith that I can get her out that way." Alright, let's do the c-section. It's a good thing too cuz as soon as we got in there, Rad's heart rate tanked. Had we opted to try the forceps we would have most likely run outta time. Turns out Radler was stuck in the birth canal and I mean STUCK! They pulled, pushed, yanked, you name it, they did it. Juddy said I looked like someone in a cheap airline film going through turbulence. They finally managed to get her free (safely), but in the process my uterus tore from bottom to top. What was normally a 30 minute routine surgery turned into more than an hour and a half of intense medical care. However, in the end, all that matters, is that we have a healthy baby and a healthy mama! 
Now, what I don't want to sound like is another birth horror story. It used to drive me nuts while I was pregnant of all the negative labor stories mom's offered. Mine was just a new adventure! Juddy asked the nurses on a scale of 1 to 10, ten being abnormal, difficult birth where I rated. They all said I was pretty close to a ten. It's all true what they say though, as soon as you see your baby, you'd do it all again!
We spent 36 hours in the hospital after surgery (I recovered really quickly) and headed home. I'm not allowed to do anything except hydrate, feed and snuggle for 2 weeks which, I'm sure you can imagine, is particularly difficult for me to do. Juddy has threatened to chain me to the recliner at least once a day! We've got both grandma's here helping and they've been fantastic; cleaning, cooking and emoting over their new family addition. I'm not moving real fast, and the first days would have been a real challenge if the GrandMOMsters weren't here.
And then there is Juddy. As predicted, he's been the most loving, helpful partner and father. He's completely enamored with his daughter and has taken to fatherhood like a pro. He and my dad are already arguing over who's going to buy her her first pony! :) Juddy gets up in the middle of the night with me, changes diapers, calms Radler down and when he gets home from work, look out GrandMOMsters it's Papa Bear's turn for Radler time! Not that I'm surprised. It's heartwarming to watch him with her...in a tough, manly way of course! :)So that's that. Big Happy is less than thrilled at the new addition, but he seems to be coping well and Little Buddy is definitely testing the waters to make sure she's still queen of the castle. Juddy's been working every day and although I stopped by the office to show off our little rockstar, I think my visits there will be on a mandatory basis. We're just loving life. And little Radler can't wait to meet all of you!! Thanks again for your love and support; this is one lucky, little lady!!
Hugs and loves, kisses and snuggles; Danielle, Juddy and Radler
That's a good lookin' family!!
Cute Couple huh?
I LOVE this one!!
I think I win....barely...
Kisses!
What's in my belly Big Happy?
Belly
He makes me laugh...all the time
There's a baby in there...