She's here!!!

There's our Sadie Harper- born Thursday at 12:43 pm, 6 pounds, 5 ounces, 19 inches long!

She was only 36 weeks old! I had just dozed off to sleep when I woke up around 11:20 pm with contractions and my water bag had ruptured. Long story short- I had my first trip to the hospital in an ambulance. I had decided I would try natural childbirth, but after 5 hours of painful contractions, the doctor proudly announced that I had dilated from 1 to 2 cm. I folded like a cheap suit and opted for an epidural. When the epidural took effect, I told the anaesthesiologist that if I weren't already married, I would have proposed to HER.

Time seemed to fly between the time I received the epidural and when I was fully dilated and ready to push. I even spent some time on my cell phone while in labor talking to folks at work and friends. When I reached 10 cm, I took a short nap until I was ready to push her out, and I pushed for about 10 minutes, and there she was!!

Unfortunately, due to being so early and showing some symptoms of a possible infection, she was not able to come home with us yesterday afternoon. It was so hard to go home without her, but her progress has been excellent. They want to treat her with antibiotics at the Pediatric ICU for a few days. They originally said they would keep her for seven days from her first dose of antibiotic, but yesterday, they said there's a chance we may be able to take her home sooner because she's responding so well. We'll be spending much of our time at the hospital the next few days.

Mom is here and will return home today and come back Tuesday for a month or so. Dad and Debi are coming today for a couple of days. Everyone has been so supportive- friends and family. If you're reading this, this means YOU. We love you. And we can't wait to introduce you to Sadie.

We'll try to snap more pictures today. Most of the first batch either didn't turn out, or made Sadie look like Richard Nixon. I kid you not.