Welcome Good Charlotte

After 8 months and 3 weeks of pregnancy and 32 hours of labor, the groundhog finally emerged from her home and announced that spring is upon us. Charlotte Eleanor Nelson was born yesterday evening at 6:59 pm. She weighed in at 6 lbs and 15 ounces, and she is 19 inches long. She already has more hair than her dad (which isn't saying much I guess). She is sporting a full head of dark hair, and if you look closely you can even see her eyebrows already. Although she is just a little gal, she put up quite the struggle. Laura woke up Tuesday morning to slight contractions that were inconsistent and not too strong, so being the trooper she is, she decided to go to work anyway (against her husband's wishes I might add). Dad went home to get everything ready (play some Wii) for going to the hospital. Laura gave me a call around 2:30 and said we had better get on with it. I grabbed everything that I thought we needed (forgeting almost all of the essentials, I guess there are things more important than the video camera) and dashed to pick her up. We got to the hospital on Tuesday around 3 pm, and we were subsiquentally released around 6pm with the nurse basically saying don't be such a wimp to Laura (she didn't get a good tip for her service). We went home and ate pizza and watched chick flicks (I know, I know, big sacrifice on my part, get ready Johnny). I tried to sleep a little, but the contractions seemed to keep both of us awake for some strange reason. We went for a 4 a.m. drive around the neighborhood trying to find a store open with fruit (which later became grapes after we found everything else but grapes specifically). And we gave up and went back home. A couple hours later Laura's contractions got really regular and really intense, so we dashed back to the hospital (within the bounds of the law, don't worry mom). We arrived around 8, and we were allowed to stay this time and were admitted around 10 a.m. By this time Laura had dialated to around a 5 and she was more than ready for the drugs. Unfortunately the drug doctors were a little backed up (i guess some other people were enjoying the same evening we were around 9 months ago, if you catch my drift). They gave Laura a shot of Nubain, which is a Narcotic to take away some of the pain, and Laura was on cloud nine. It was Laura's first time to ever use "drugs" in her life and she said, "I really like this stuff." It was really funny to see Laura "under the influence", because she was in pain still but she was having a great time anyway. It is safe to say that Laura would definately be a drug addict given the chance (Ok, ok, I know, I'm getting on with it). Laura did finally get the epidural around 1 p.m. and then it was a waiting game. Laura slept and I watched the Indians game on the hospital T.V. That's right, baseball is still imporant, even under these circumstances. Things got exciting around 6:30 when Laura was ready to push. Laura did wonderfully (probably because of the amazing coaching she had from the incredible dark, bald, and handsome man sitting beside her), and the birth was done in less than half an hour. Charlotte came out wide-eyed and screaming, trumpeting her arrival into this world. There were no complications at all, unless you consider 32 hours of labor a complication. She was in her parents arms within minutes and mom and dad were fighting over who's turn it was to hold her for the rest of the night.