This girl is just too cute. This Pic was taken maybe 1 1/2 months ago. You can really see her personality though. She is a little mischievous and she has an amazing sense of humor. It is an amazing feeling to wake up each day and have that smile greet you from her crib when you walk in her room. She really has the ability to bring a smile to anyone’s face.

Well, school has just about taken over my life. The end is in sight though, at least for the winter break. I’ll have 20 whopping days off. Anyhow, Haleigh had her Christmas pictures taken a few weeks ago and they came out amazing. Allison bought her a great little dress and took her to the photographer at Babies “R” Us (Kiddie Kandids?). Whatever, they’re great. We’ll post them soon. Haleigh has gotten so big and although she hass retained some of her features, she looks so different than compared to the last pictures posted here. Stay tuned and get ready with the oooohs and aaaaahs. Like I said, they’re great.

We were scheduled to be discharged from the hospital at 11:00 AM today but things have been pushed back for a few hours. Due to the fact that Allison had a fever during the delivery and Haleigh had one for a brief period following, the pediatrician at the hospital wanted us to stick around until 5:00 PM just to make sure nothing came up. Apparently, after 48 hours, she should be in the clear from any related infection or illness. The doctor assured as that all is well and that she looks great. The extra few hours of observation are only a precaution. Have no fear, we’ll all be home soon and more pictures (including ones of Haleigh in her “homecoming” dress) will be posted soon.

Haleigh Anne Giuliano was born on May, 10th 2008 at 7:20 PM. She weighed approximately 7 pounds and 3 ounces. I won’t go into too many details at this time regairding either Allison’s or my experiences during the labor and delivery. In fact, all I’ll say right now is that it was long, I’m glad its over and I’m extrmeley grateful that both Allison and Haleigh are healthy and safe. Here are some pictures so that you may become acquainted.

Haleigh and Allison

Haleigh and Dr. O’Toole

Based on the number of times Allison’s phone has vibrated in my pocket I gather that there are a lot of anxious friends and family members out there. First of all, I want to thank all of you for your support and your interest in what is going on. As of right now, we have not had the baby yet. We arrived at the hospital a little before 5:00 yesterday afternoon. Once we made it to the labor room, the doctor broke Allison’s water and decided to try and let nature take its course. Things progressed very slowly from that point. I am leaving out many details right now, but we can fill those in at a later date. At about 2:00 AM (possibly after that) the doctor decided to begin the induction process. Since that time, things have progressed a little quicker but stilly very slowly. I’ll fill you all in as we learn more.

No, we’re not back with the baby. We’re not even back after hours of false labor. We got to the hospital at around 8:45 last evening to have the prostin gel put in (they forgot to call us earlier in the evening) and were eventually brought up to a labor room because all of the triage rooms were full. After the gel was put in, it looked promising. Contractions were coming regularly, about every 3 minutes, but were not very strong. Finally, at 12:15 AM, they decided to send us home with explicit instructions to return if the contractions got so bad that Allison coldn’t walk, lots of bleeding occurred, the baby stopped acting in its typical manner or Allison’s water broke. Needless to say, none of that happened and we are now awaiting a call to return to the hospital to begin the induction process. I think we are in for another long night but at least this time, we will be prepared. The television in the labor room gets 12 channels, 13 if you count the tv guide channel. Due to this fact, we will be bringing a laptop and a bag full of DVDs into the labor room with us this evening. Below is a brief list of what we may be watching this evening:

1. The Office Season 1
2. The Office season 3
4. Gone in 60 seconds
5. Family Guy Volume 3
6. Family Guy Volume 5
7. Pirates of the Caribbean 1 & 2

I think those will keep us busy for a while. Anyhow, that’s all I got for now.

At Allison’s appointment yesterday the doctor made a decision to induce her on Friday. 5/9/08. Apparently, the induction process is a multi-day event. This evening, we will be heading over to the triage department at the hospital so that Allison can be given prostin gel. Prostin Gel, to be brief and without getting too complicated, is used to get things started (e.g., thinning out or softening the cervix). After she is given the prostin gel, she and the baby will be observed from 1 to 3 hours. If the gel does not put her in labor, we will be able to go home tonight and awate their call tomorrow (of course we could end up there in the middle of the night). Tomorrow, if we make it that long, we will be called sometime during the day to head into the hospital to continue on with the induction. It will be interesting to see how things turn out. Either way, we’re packed and ready to go. We’ve both packed clothes and toiletries. I have a few books, some for me, some for the baby. The digital camera is charged as is the video camera and Allison is using her laptop right now but we will be bringing that along so that we can watch movies, surf the web, play games and of course, blog. Speaking of blogging, I will be blogging the entire delviery in real time. Think of it as a play by play. I have also embedded a streaming video client in the site so that you can watch the delivery live. Due to the ridgidity of the wordpress software, I had to make a video page and put the video dashboard there but it works. At the top of the page, you should see some tabs (e.g., about, video). Click on the video tab to gain access. The rest is pretty self explanatory. That’s about it for now. I’m going to go check on everything one more time to make sure we haven’t forgotten anything. Wish us luck!!!