Welcome Ellen Elizabeth

Please welcome the most wonderful miracle we could have ever asked for:

Ellen Elizabeth

Born May 16, 2007 at 12:33 PM

7 pounds 13 ounces

21.25 inches

If you've ever had a hard labor or delivery, then you may not want to read this because I probably had the easiest one in history. Ellie made it one day longer than I did, but barely. I started having some cramping on Tuesday afternoon and then on Tuesday night I started having some contractions that were unevenly timed. I didn't know if they would stop or slow down so I went to bed. Around 1am, I woke up with stronger contractions so I got up and started timing them. Around 1:30, I woke up Lee to tell him that I thought it was time to go to the hospital.

When I got to the hospital, I was 1cm dilated and since I had NEVER been dilated before, I was very excited about that. The contractions became more regular and stronger so I decided to get an epidural... mostly because I was about to barf from the pain. Literally. But first I had to get the IV so they had a line. This was by far the worst part of the entire process. First I gave blood samples which went okay. Then the nurse tried to give me an IV. Trust me - I told them all about the horrible veins I have and nobody listened. She didn't get the vein. So they sent in Nurse #2 who failed and then Nurse #3 who blew out a vein in my hand. All the while I'm contracting so 4AM was sort of a low point that involved mild profanity. Nurse #4 got it in there. Once I got the epidural, I went to sleep.

Lee can remember more then I can, but I do know that I went from 3.5 cm at 9AM to 9 cm at 11:30. Around 12:20, they decided that I should try to push. If you read above what time she was born, you might be clued into why this was so easy for me. I pushed through the first contraction and she crowned so they told me to stop so they could call the doctor up (by the way - Darth Vader did not wind up delivering my baby and don't act like you're not secretly disappointed). As soon as the doctor came up, I pushed once and most of her head came out, pushed twice and the whole thing was out, pushed the third time and the rest of her popped out. So my total push time equaled about 45 seconds.

When she came out, she cried a little, but didn't fuss much as they cleaned her up. Lee was the first one to hold her while they worked on me and I really thought he'd never put her down. I finally got to hold her and these two huge eyes stared up at me. I knew she knew who I was and she also knew who Lee was because she would look over at him when he talked. I couldn't believe how alert she was. She also looked a little confused because I'm sure she had planned to spend the day swimming again. After we had some time with her, my mom and dad as well as Lee's mom came in to see her.

She's only been here 36 hours, but I can't believe how easy she has been. She's so agreeable. And she's beautiful. I can't believe how perfect she is. She's asleep in my lap right now. We get to take her home tomorrow and I'm very excited for her to see her new home. And for those of you who are interested in me, I'm fine. I have been walking around all day and think I'll be back to my old self in 2-3 weeks. I hope.

Here are some more pictures... there will be more to come!