Cuter, even, than a kitten

The moment we've all been waiting for finally arrived: Baby Girl is here! Or, more accurately, Kalina Lynn Odegaard. She was born on Saturday, June 28 at 3:45 pm, weighing a tiny 6 lbs, 1 oz and measuring 20 inches long. She's amazingly precious and more endearing than kittens, which I was expecting but am relieved and thrilled is true.

Here's the story, truncated for my (and Kalina's) convenience.

Labor: It started at 10:45 pm on Friday night, with Baby seeming to be trying to rocket herself from my ribs out the door. She settled down later and was really a trooper throughout the whole thing. Matt and I were both in major denial for the first few hours until we realized, whoops, we probably should've called the doctor by now and whoops, my water broke and we're not even done packing. We weren't really panicked, just startled. We headed to the hospital.

It was overwhelming and felt fast. If I'd known what I was going to go through I would've politely declined at the front door of the hospital and figured out a different plan. It's hard to be proud of delivering when I was already almost begging for an epidural before being in really active labor, but I am proud of the fact that I actually labored most of the way without an epidural (by no choice of my own!) and pushed for only 45 minutes, earning even the doctor's compliments.

Upon entering the world, Baby Girl seemed to want to see all of it. Wide-eyed and with at least 1 hand in her mouth at all times, she surveyed everything within the 2 inches in front of her she could see.

I got to play with her a while before they whisked her away. Matt and I got settled into a baby-sized room. I sent him out for a footlong Subway sandwich that we shared. I hadn't had cold deli meat since before pregnancy (and therefore craved it the whole way through) and Matt therefore had the good sense not to get it toasted. We took pictures of the baby's every move, but still don't feel we have any that truly do her justice. The next day we finally named her, trying with some success to break the habit of calling her Baby K or other such indescript names.

I thought the hospital stay might be boring, but it wasn't. Between nurse visits, showing Kalina off to guests and learning how to take care of her, we barely even ate. But it was all fun! We even got some decent sleep the second night, mostly because even though we told the nurses we wanted her to room in, they'd take her away randomly during the night and "forget" to bring her back. I still haven't figured out if I'm annoyed by that or grateful.


Yesterday we came home! The pediatrician said she's perfect in every way (but we all already knew that, right?), and I'm recovering swimmingly. I look like I'm about 5 months pregnant, which in my case means I barely need maternity pants. Yes, I'm bragging. Kalina, by the way, was overwhelmed even by newborn clothes. She slept the whole way home as I tried to keep her head from wobbling too much and Matt stopped at every yellow light.

We're just starting to get to know her, but we can tell you she has the cutest high-pitched cry and likes to have her hands in her face (leading to some sad scratches and the reason why she's wearing socks on them in the picture). She's a quiet sleeper, she grips well and she melted my heart the first time she calmed down for me and no one else, just because she wanted me, personally, to hold her. She likes me! What a little sweetie.

We still can hardly believe we're now parents to such a healthy, beautiful baby and thank God for this amazing little creation.

[No babies were ignored in the creation of this post. It was typed entirely one-handed.]