Julianna Eva Orlando (aka Jules) was born today ay 10:07pm weighing 6 lbs 4 ounces and measuring 18.5 inches.  She has blonde hair and blue eyes (for now anyway).  She has Matty's lips and looks like Matty's nose (I hope so).  And no cone head, I thought for sure she would have dark brown hair and a huge cone head.

We had an amazing delivery....  I had my first contractions around 3am early Monday morning.  They didn't become really regular until around 6pm.  At about 7pm Dina, the doula, decided that things were progressing now and she would head to our house.  She was on her way to our house and talking on the phone with Matty when she heard me having a contraction in the background and she could tell things were moving along.  She decided to change plans and told Matty to get me to the hospital and she would meet us there.  We got into the hospital at about 8pm and to my surprise was greated by Alison (my favorite midwife who wasn't suposed to be oncall that night).  I was 3-4 centimeters, so we all walked the halls for about a half hour.  The room with the portable tub opened up and we went in to get me hooked up so they could get the 20 minutes of monitoring done that you have to have before you can get into the tub.  By the end of that I was 6 centimeters and was able to get in the tub.  A few mintues later Matty joined me in the tub and we started to push.  I think it was about 8 pushes later (tried to count them on the video) that she was born into the water and fully unmedicated.

I will have to fill everyone in on all the other details and all the stories about what been going on since when I have some more time.

I put some pics up but we really didn't take too many yet so I will put more when I get them.

For those of you that haven't heard, last Friday we thought we were going to have a baby.  I woke up at about 5 am sick to my stomach with mild contractions.  As the day went on the contractions increased and so did the stomach issues.  I called Tina and she thought it was an increase in hormones that was making me sick and that it could be early labor.  Later that night the contractions were getting painful and about 3 minutes apart, and by then I was exhausted from throwing up and being sick all day so I called the doula, Dina,  asking her for any tips to sleep and get some rest.  That's when I found out that she too was sick and that she thought that one of the kids at the "don;t have your baby on the same day" lunch must of gave us and some of the other moms a bug.  She gave me some pointers and I finally fell asleep around one.  By the next morning the contractions had eased up and there was no baby.  Although somewhat disapointed I was glad because I had no energy to labor or deliver a baby.  It took me until Monday to get rehydrated and feeling a little better.  So we are still waiting...

Today we met with Alison for a checkup and as always the baby is doing great.  And even though I barely ate all weekend she and I both managed to still put on weight, how I have no idea.  I can't believe I have put on 35-40 pounds.  Lets hope its as easy to take off as it was to put on,  She said she thinks the baby is about 7 1/2 to 8 pounds and is in great position.  The group b strep came back negative, so that's one less thing to worry about.  So we are just waiting for her to be ready.... lets hope sooner than later.

Well it's official now, we will not be alllowed an early release like we hoped we might.  We will be stuck in the hospital for over 24 hours and most likely for the full 48 hours.  So we are no longer asking family to wait until we are home to visit.  Here is all the info you need on visiting the hospital:

Morristown Memorial Hospital - 100 Madison Ave, Morristown, NJ 07962 - Main phone number: 973-971-5000

Directions:  This is the way we like to go: 24 west to 287 south to exit 35 Madison Ave.  Make a left at the light and another left at the next light into the hospital.  Good luck with parking, they have been doing construction.

Labor and Delivery - Only Matty and Dina will be allowed onto this unit.  Everyone must wait until we are moved to the Mother/Baby unit to visit (we were told about 1 to 2 hours after delivery).

Mother/Baby Unit - Visiting hours are 12pm to 8pm.  You must have a state issued ID to be allowed onto the unit.  No one under the age of 12 is allowed.

I just found this out today from a friend that just delivered at Morristown a few weeks ago.  She said they only would allow 4 visitors onto the unit at a time which caused some issues.  We were under the impression that once on the Mather/Baby unit there weren't any restrictions (she thought that also).  So I just wanted to give everyone a heads up that they may be stuck at the security desk in the hallway (as some of her visitors were) and people may have to rotate to visit.