Baby!

Baby R, who henceforth shall be known on this blog as 'Foof' or occasionally, 'Baby Foof', made her appearance on Sunday. =)

  I had been having occasional contractions most of Saturday and through the night, and they turned regular at about 5:30 AM. All of my relatives were worried about a repeat of Becker's birth (though I wouldn't trade that experience for anything!) so we piled all of the daughters and bags in the car and headed for the hospital at about 6.

  The grandparents arrived at the hospital a while after we did, bringing some much-appreciated snacks, and took the girls home with them. Everything slowed down once we were at the hospital (which is what I was afraid of!) so I spent the next 7 hours walking around and bouncing on a ball to try get things going again, between being monitored and poked.

  Finally, at about 2:30 things started picking up again, and at 3 the contractions were regular, close, and strong. I didn't feel an urge to push until about 3:26, and two pushes later Foof's head- still in the sac- came sliding out. One more, and she flew through the air as the sac exploded. I said, 'There she is!' and reached to take her from the midwife, who had caught her neatly. (My husband says that I snatched Foof from the midwife and startled everyone, but it seemed to me that I just gently picked her up.) And she was perfect.

  She still is perfect. =) She has tiny little fingers, a round little face with adorable dimples, itty bitty feet, and is delightfully calm.

  She weighed 7lbs 8oz at birth, and was a mere 19.25" long- short, as far as my babies go! Foof is absolutely perfectly healthy, and we were released from the hospital on Monday afternoon.

  She loves to be held, and hardly cries, and her little face can run the gamut of expressions in 30 seconds or less.

  We all adore her.

  I made the dress she is wearing in the photos, and will blog about it eventually, but for now I'm going to be spending a lot of time snuggling this little darling. =)

Thanks for stopping by,