Della Tetro Warren : 080806 11:35am : 7 pounds 8 ounces

We’re happy to announce that Della Tetro joined the Warren family on Tuesday August 8th 2006 at 11:35am. She weighed a healthy 7 pounds 8 ounces.  She trumped all the other kids and got an 8, 9 on her Apgar (she’d been practicing).  Ginger went through 7.5 hours of labor; amazingly short for a first baby.  The baby and Ginger are doing great … we couldn’t ask for more. It was a good Seattle day to have a baby.

So that note below (the one about our doctor saying any day). Well, she wasn’t kidding.  We went home that afternoon and did some cleaning, listened to some records and played some Halo (yeh, teachers play halo too).  It was a pretty low key night.  10pm rolls around and Ginger turns to me ‘I think I’m having contractions’ … we sorta let it slide, thought they’d go away after a while.  Well they didn’t. we timed them for 4 or 5 hours .. closer, closeR, CLOSER. Everytime we’d try to sleep Ginger would get up because a contraction would hit. About 4 in the morning we started to realize that this ‘was it’ and we should get our stuff together.  A call to the birthing center @ Group Health was met with ‘sure, come in – but we might send you home if the contractions don’t get closer … take your time’.  We took our time, and about 5:10 or so Ginger couldn’t even speak. I was running around putting together everything and she would have these nasty contractions every 4 – 5 minutes …

damn, this is it?

So the drive to Group Health on Capitol Hill was crazy.  You feel every break, speed bump. I almost missed a few stop signs just because we were in a daze and hadn’t slept yet.  When we arrived over at Group Health they took us in the back to monitor Ginger.  We’d been there a few weeks ago to test ginger’s BP, so we knew the place a little bit.  They hooked Ginger up to a bunch of monitors, took some quick tests.  Funniest thing about all this is on the curtain one over (we’re sorta in the ‘in between’ area) – there’s a couple that’s having 2.5 minute contractions and ‘like, sorta thought they were having a baby so they thought they’d, just, sorta come in’ (yes, they talked like that).  The nurse is telling them to go home and Ginger is yelling and gripping the table.  Trust us peeps – yr not having a baby yet.

Our nurse for the birth, Kathy, was there and confirmed that Ginger was ready and told a bunch of people (residents?) to call our doctor.  They wheeled her over and we got this nice corner birthing room.  The next few hours were a blur of keeping Ginger feeling well and getting ready.  They have a space age Jacuzzi (pretty sweet), hardwood floors, super-supportive nurses and all sorts of ways to help Ginger out. I’ll leave out all of the technical, medical things here …………… (ask us in person) ……….. So after all the waiting and contractions, Della was born into the world. Happy, healthy with big open eyes.  30 seconds after she was born they placed her on ginger’s chest … They were able to do tests while we hung out with her.  Probably a good 30 minutes before they needed to check her out and test a few other things. We just sat there and stared … talked to her, let her grab our fingers.  Must be pretty crazy to go from her last home to the outside world … information overload!

One quick note – ginger did all of this without drugs!  No needle to the spine, no narcotics … 100% natural.  All of the staff at the birthing center were more than impressed.  I can’t imagine doing that!

We spent the next 27 hours or so just hanging out with Della … trying to relax, trying to eat, taking care of her and watching her.  The nurses were really helpful in leaving us alone when we needed it or helping when we asked. They answered all of the questions we asked, made sure Della and Ginger were good + hooked us up with triple deserts. nice.

I’m typing this with Della in my lap, the 9 months (10 if you really count it) have gone by … crazy enough, there’s a little girl living with us now.  She’s catching up quick; her arms are moving around, she hears music and looks around wild eyed.  It’s going to be fun.

Thanks to everyone for all of there support … our family, our friends, our neighbors, our band mates, our co-workers, the new zealander nurse that strapped Della in to come home, our doctor … Everyone.  We’ll put some good stories up soon … more pictures even sooner (really! we swear we’re going through them).  Check back … we might even have stories that don’t have anything to do with babies!. heh.

XOXOXO – D + G + J