Welcome, Sage Chow Liddell

We are overjoyed to announce that our beautiful baby girl, Sage, arrived at 8:23 pm on Friday, September 17, 2010. She weighed 6 lb., 9.5 oz., measured 19 inches tall, and was delivered via VBAC (darn right, I'm proud of that!) at Swedish Hospital in Seattle.


Here's how it all happened...

9/17/10

12:30 pm - Althea calls Ryan at work to let him know that contractions are getting a bit stronger and are now about 5-6 minutes apart, so Ryan heads home!

1:30 pm - Kian requests that Mama reads stories at naptime, so Althea breathes through a couple books and then lets grandma take over.

1:45 pm - Althea lays down and keeps track of contractions...and now they are really starting to hurt at 4 minutes apart.

2:15 pm - Ryan and Althea decide to begin driving to Swedish while still on hold with the ob/gyn office, knowing that they would say just head straight to the hospital.

2:30 pm - We arrive at triage and document this step with a smile (in between contractions).


2:30- 2:50 pm - Althea's contractions are monitored in triage, cervix dilation is checked and reported to be 4 1/2 cm., and a birthing suite is ordered up.

2:50-3:15 pm - Ryan coaches Althea through breathing exercises as we impatiently wait for the room to be ready.

3:15-4:15 pm - Two nurses unsuccessfully try to find a vein to hook up an IV. This is a necessary step before receiving an epidural and relief from pain. Althea powers through very intense contractions, nearly breaking down with the fear that this could end up being a natural childbirth.

4:15 pm - The anesthesiologist arrives and saves the day with the IV and an epidural. Unfortunately, the pain medication hasn't had time to soak in much, so Althea feels the epidural needle and has never before tried so hard to remain still and has never before looked so intently into Ryan's eyes for strength.

The 4 hours in between the epidural and the birth consisted of discovering that in just a couple of hours - between the triage exam and the birthing suite exam - my cervix had gone from 4 1/2 cm. to fully dilated and effaced....waiting for a couple more hours for contractions to naturally move the baby down the birth canal... and the pushing itself lasted for just 40 minutes.

The ob we had seen for all prenatal visits, Dr. Judy Kimelman, was not on call (again...she didn't end up delivering Kian either), so the dr. who delivered our baby girl was Dr. Susan Harvey. She was incredibly encouraging, optimistic, and wonderful.

Mother-daughter bonding just moments after birth.

My rockstar breathing coach holding the fruits of our labor.

Here are more pictures of Sage, when she was less than 24 hours old, taken by the professional photographer associated with the hospital...









More snapshots in the postpartum room....

Grandma and Grandpa bring big brother Kian to meet Sage.

Our first baby...where did those two years go?!

Kian "holds" his baby sister.


Kian checks out the new addition to our family.

Kian thinks that Sage's sneeze was funny.

This little baby is entertaining!

Uncle Max visits Sage in the hospital.


A rare look at Sage with her eyes open.

Basking in the Seattle sunlight in the arms of papa.

One final snuggle on the hospital bed before going home.

So tiny in the car seat...buckled up and ready to head home!