Esther Keightley

Hi, this is Mike posting because Robyn hasn't been discharged from the hospital yet. So for those of you who don't want to hear the story (or want to hear it from the master storyteller, Robyn) just scroll down to the last paragraph for the summary and latest info.
Anyways, Thursday the 14 or so, we went in to the doctor and they said that she was dilated to a "1", meaning the baby could be here in about a week to 3 weeks. SO we got all excited. The next Thursday, the doctor said Robyn was still at a "1", so I got slightly disappointed because I needed "her" here (we hadn't decided on a name yet). But the next day, Robyn had regular contractions for 18 hours straight until her parents arrived from Singapore, when for whatever reason, the contractions calmed down to once ever 20 to 30 minutes. I was even slightly more disappointed because I was excited to go to the hospital and get this baby out even though it was really more up to the baby and Robyn than my school schedule (I have tests all next week, so that would have been difficult to work through).
Anyways, the contractions stopped Saturday morning, and so we had a nice day with Mom and Papa Sampson (Robyn's parents). At 4AM Sunday morning, the contractions started up again every 30 minutes or so, only Robyn said they were more intense. By 7AM they were every 8 or 9 minutes apart, and by 8AM Robyn only had 3 minute breaks in between contractions that lasted 2 minutes. We called the hospital at 9AM, and they saw on file that Robyn was only at a "1" two days before, so the nurse told us to have her drink water and take a hot shower and it should stop the contractions if they were not the real thing.
Robyn couldn't hold down water and showered but was still having the contractions, so to distract her, I grabbed a few of Robyn's old favorite Bible cartoons (that we have from working for the company that made them) that she liked as a kid, and one of them was Esther. Watching that calmed us all down and we felt good about that name.
We called back the hospital at about 10:30 or so, and they said come in, so we showed up at 11:00, finally checked in at 11:20, got up to the delivery room by 11:30 or maybe even later because all the while Robyn had to stop, stand up and have a contraction every other minute. The nurse was asking Robyn, her mom, and I questions all through Robyn's contractions, and checked to see what Robyn was at after finishing her questions. By then, Robyn was at an "8," which means within anywhere from an hour to three or four, the baby will be there. We were all a little shocked that she was at an "8" (especially the nurse, who had me press the "emergency" button on the wall to get people in to help), and so a med student, a resident doctor, and a few other nurses rushed in. Robyn hadn't wanted an epidural, but when she heard she might have to be in that pain for 4 more hours, she said she wanted the epidural. They paged the anesthesiologist, but 2 contractions later after the nurse told Robyn not to push and she responded "I CAN'T not push!!!," the water broke and the head doctor and anesthesiologist had not made it yet. Two contractions later, the baby's head was showing, and some amazing pushes from Robyn and the baby came out, only crying intermittently when the nurses had to prod or poke her. So Robyn did it all without drugs!

So Esther Keightley was born 5 lbs 11.8 oz, 17 and 3/4 inches long at 12:37 PM Sunday, January 25, 2009 (not more than an hour after we made it to the delivery room). Both mom and baby are doing great!

Thanks everyone for your love and help throughout the pregnancy!
Enjoy the pics (and no, they are not in order) !