4 days old, and at home

                                  Eva's going home outfit

                               Introducing Lucy to her little sister

So, I was not as good at blogging from the hospital as I had hoped.  

The story of the labor:

We went to labor and delivery at 6:30 on Tuesday morning, then started Pitocin by around 7:30 when Dr. Kennedy broke my water.  The contractions were almost immediately 2 minutes apart and got stronger every so often.  I really had no idea how bad my contractions were on a scale of 1 to 10 when the nurse asked me.  They were bearable and I began to wonder how bad she thought they were on the monitor.  I did not want to be a wimp and get an epidural too soon.  I know that will slow down the labor.  I just keep breathing and squeezing Grant's hand until about 9am when the nurse called the anesthesiologist anyway.  At this point I was 5 cm already, and the crazy thing is the doctor had the meds in the epi by 9:02.  2 minutes and he was done. I didn't feel a thing, and that is what I was most nervous about the whole time.  By 10:30 I was 10 cm, and we started pushing.  I had Eva by 12:57, but it seriously only felt like 30 minutes.  It was so crazy.  That epidural is the best thing ever, by the way.  Eva popped out, literally and was screaming her head off. I now understand why moms always love to hear their babies' first screaming.  She weighed 6lbs 6ozs and is 20 inches long.  I weighed the exact same thing and was 19 inches long.  So crazy.  Anyway,  after I held her in "kangaroo care", which is so wonderful, and fed her, the family came in.  I mean the whole family, 4 grandparents, 3 aunts, 1 uncle, 1 great grandmother and a grandaunt and uncle and other friends too!  She is loved already.  We stayed in delivery a bit longer because apparently Cinco de Mayo was a busy birthing day.  By the time we got to our room it was after 3 and we had so many sweet visitors, there was almost no time for anything other than feeding and a little sleep.  We did get to take some pictures.  Lots of pictures.  Eva can tell when the flash is going off, and squints her eyes, so many of them are of her asleep.  

Anyway, Thank you so much to all of you who came to visit us and brought us sweet gifts.  We are so fortunate for all of your support.  Grant and I are truly in love with our beautiful little girl.  He is such a wonderful daddy already, helping me all the time with feeding, as I still do not have a system for the breastfeeding as far as getting everything I need before hand.  Eva is on a great schedule all ready with her eating, and is right on track with the rest. We just gave her her first bath, but those pictures are not uploaded just yet. It was so cute. She is so good, and only cries minimally so far.  I could go on, but all is well here and I can't wait for all of you to meet her!