Big Sis holding here little sister for the first time
The family all together for the first time
the peaceful ride home
We are thrilled to announce that Charlotte receivied an early Christmas present in the form of a baby sister, Catherine Grace Perry. She arrived at 12:14 pm on Monday December 21, 2009 weighing 8 lbs 15 oz and was 20.5 inches long. We are so happy that Catherine has joined our family as I can honestly say that the wait was really beginning to weigh on Cory and I as we had expected her to come early since Charlotte was 9 days early. We were not surprised at her weight, despite an ultrasound in the 37th week telling us that she was expected to be average size, as I had feeling that the ultrasound was not right. The trip to the hospital began at 1:30 in the morning when I woke Cory after about an hour of contractions and my water breaking (much like in the movies). It took Cory about a minute to wake up after I turned on the light and when I told him it was "Go Time" he woke and shouted "Shut Up"! A lot of his surprise was due to a number of false alarms we had over the past few weeks where I had contractions for a few hours and just as we started to think about going to the hospital the contractions would go away. Cory began frantically gathering our things and called our good fried Kate, who we have give many thanks for coming to watch Charlotte at two in the morning until Cory's parents got to Boston from Maine. Even after my water broke the contractions were not that painful (definitely different from when I went into labor with Charlotte) and it seemed surreal that when we got the hospital we parked the car and I walked up to the labor area on my own. They checked us in and I began to feel slightly more painful contractions. In a unbelievable coincidence we were checked into room 1462 at MGH, which was the same delivery room that we had charlotte in. Fortunately this labor lasted about half as long as Charlotte's did and after about 11 hours of laboring Catherine came into this world a little after noon. In attempt to lighten the mood Cory said to me at 11:30, when the labor more painful, that wouldn't be cool if I delivered the baby at 12:21 pm on 12/21/09. I did not find this very funny at the time (or even that funny) so I am sorry I disappointed him by delivering Catherine too early. On a sad note after Catherine was born she had to spend the first night in the Transitional nursery as she swallowed a good amount of fluid and they were concerned about her oxygen levels. This was a difficult night for us since we were not able to have her in our room but luckily she was able to leave early the next morning and join us in the room. The rest of our time in the hospital was uneventful and we were happy to be able to come home today and see Charlotte who we both missed dearly. Cory and I are so thrilled with Catherine and so far she is a little calmer than her big sister over the first few days. Big sister was better than we expected when we brought Catherine home but we know it will take her a little while get used to this new addition to the family.
