Blood, Sweet Pitocin, and Tears

In the great tradition of Kohl childbirths, Shauna and I trekked over to the hospital yesterday and did a whole lot of waiting. (I guess a few more hours tacked onto the end of nine months--well, technically, it was more like eight months and two and a half weeks--is just a drop in the proverbial bucket, but to a woman on the cusp of postpartum it matters very little.)

The carousel of Labor and Delivery nurses and sundry staff started spinning around 6:30 yesterday morning when we arrived, What-To-Expect-When-You're-Expecting-recommended delivery bag in hand, at the local hospital. And after hours of a gradually quickening pitocin drip, a crackerjack management of Shauna's fickle blood pressure, countless pelvic exams and even countlesser episodes of every iteration of Law and Order imaginable, Shauna and I were surrounded by quiet. It amazes me how quickly everyone vacated the delivery room after the labor itself was over, leaving us with our only Y-chromosome-difficient offspring. Ashlyn Irene Kohl was born at 5:21 pm on Tuesday, March 31, weighing in at a lean seven pounds and 10 ounces and measuring an average 20 inches. (If you'd like to engage in a discussion regarding the trustworthiness of these infant measurements in the comments section, please be my guest. I'll never understand how Liam was 19 inches when he was born and a whopping 22 inches the following week.)

For those disappointed by my lack of visual output, more pictures will come a little later. (When I was considering what to post, I realized that the only other good pictures I had taken yesterday also included one very tired mother, who would be very unpleased if I posted anything with even a pixel of her in it.) As you can see, Ashlyn looks pretty much like every other newborn. To those Y-chromosome-difficient readers who inherently find a swollen, bloody, and disoriented child "precious" and "cuddle-worthy," please do not be offended when I say that to me she pretty much looks like she just awoke the morning after a drunken bar fight somewhere in Sanpete County. And I lover her forever for it.