Birth of Aliena

The 4th A is here....
Aliena Phoebe Chaine was born on August 19th at 7:10pm in the French Pyrenees.
It was a pretty sudden start -- we had the usual 9 months warning, but Amy didn't have her first contraction until about 1pm or so on the 19th. She called Alexis at work around 3pm to let him know what was going on and that he might consider coming home. Contractions were 4-5 minutes apart.

After a nice relaxing bath and trying to stay calm and hypnobithing-relaxed for the long-haul (Adrien introduced us to the 48-hours-of-labor view of birth), we realized that contractions every 2-3 minutes was a good time to consider loading the car and heading into the hospital. By the time the car was loaded (10 minutes?), Amy reported contractions being pretty much one continuous contraction a said (less politely) - "screw this relaxation thing, I want an epidural".

We drove quickly (but safely, mom) to the hospital, parked, made a mental note to grab the camera and the bag on the next trip to the car, ran in, and were ushered directly to the birthing room. Hmmmm...that's an odd place to check on the status....well...things are different in France...! Amy wanted to go pee....and the midwife said "sure...but make sure you don't push"....hmmmmm.....why did she say that?

Baby was born soon after. The records show that we checked in at 7pm, and Aliena was born at 7:10. But who really had time to look at their watch? First photos were from the cell phone...crappy photos, but that's what happens when you forget to call the videographer. Anyways...it was pretty different from the first child...but it all worked out great in the end. Amy scored the (only) air-conditioned maternity room (it was about 33C or 92F), settled in, and Papa fetched Adrien for a little visit. That was about the time we realized that this was not where we expected to celebrate our wedding anniversary....which we had forgotten about completely.

Aliena was born at 2.98kg (Google it if your math skills can't handle x2.2 to get lbs) and some still undetermined length. She seems healthy, gorgeous (that is a completely unbiased assessment using the standard beaut-ometer...we are scientists...you must believe our objectivity...), and is keeping her mommy busy with demands for "boobies" (as Adrien put it).

Papi and Bonne Maman got here on Thursday night (while Adrien and Papa were having a dance party at home), got a few peeks at the newest A. Chaine, and have been spoiling their grandson in the spare hours. Having a sister is great! In their hurry to get down here, Papi left his bag on the front porch in Lyon and had to shop in the fashion mecca known as St. Girons (Adrien took them to all the hip spots...which surprisingly involved numerous toy stores).