And the winners are...

Messimoo (guess: Feb. 14th) and Big Bellied Momma (guess: 7 lbs. 4 oz.)!

Introducing Sophie Lynn!

Here are the vital statistics:

February 7, 2007
12:31 PM
7 lbs. 3 0z.
18 1/2 inches

Trust me, I'm as surprised as you are that she was 3 whole weeks early. I mean, I was ready to be done with this pregnancy and all, but at BEST I was hoping for a couple of weeks early!

Here is a quick (I guess I should wait until I'm done writing this to make that claim!) recap of the last 24 hours. So, last night around 7, I started having semi-regular contractions that were starting to get more than uncomfortable. I wanted to wait and make sure that they were the real deal before going to the hospital, so we decided to finish watching American Idol to wait it out and see if they would get more regular and painful. We were all set to go, when they started slowing down, and eventually stopped around 10 or so. At this point I was tired, having been up half the night before with really bad round ligament pain. I was able to get a couple of hours of sleep in before I woke up around 12:30 with more contractions. So, for the next hour and a half I was timing contractions, and trying to decide if I should wake up Scott to head to the hospital. These contractions petered out as well, and I finally fell back asleep around 2. Well, at 5 I was up again with contractions coming about 4 minutes apart, and staying consistently uncomfortable bordering on painful. By 6 I woke Scott up to tell him that I was thinking we'd have the baby today.

I've realized that I have virtually no pictures of being pregnant this time around, so this will have to do


Settled in and ready for the baby to get here!

We got to the hospital and were all settled in by about quarter to 8. However, Sophie picked one of the busiest days EVER to be born (seriously, by the time they were wheeling her down to the nursery, there had already been 8 births that morning with 7 more ready to happen). Because of this, and I guess a shortage of nurses on hand to help out everywhere, our service -- so to speak -- was a little slow. I guess there's really nothing you can do about that though. Apparently its my lot in life to NEVER have an epidural work properly during my labor and delivery. I was really hoping 3rd time would be a charm here, but no such luck. My doctor came in to break my water around noon, and also had the nurses hook me up to a little Pitocin. This combo wreaked havoc on my poor little body, so that the said epidural did not have time to catch up to the rapid changes I was undergoing. I went from being 5 cm dilated to complete and ready to go in like 10 or 15 minutes. Let's just say I really don't know how all you ladies out there can do natural childbirth. I must have a really low threshold for pain, because basically I felt like I was dying. Luckily, the anasthesiologist came and gave me another dose of the epidural , and by the time that caught up with me, I was not in pain for the actual delivery. She was born so quick, though, that her face is a little bruised up.





Being born 3 weeks early, I was a little concerned about her lungs being completely developed, etc. But, fortunately everything looks good and I think we've finally gotten our mellow child! I've hardly heard her cry at all, and she's basically been sleeping since they FINALLY brought her in to me at 3 PM. Scott thinks she looks like Ethan, but I don't think she looks like anybody so far. Every now and then I'll catch a glimpse of Ethan or Grace in her, but for the most part she's got her own look -- which sometimes looks like a little old man, poor thing.

(Do you like how tired I look?)

Anyway, I guess this wasn't a very quick recap, but I wanted to write it all down since I've become such a non-existent journal keeper.

Here are some pics of the kids meeting her. To be honest they were a little more interested in the cookies that the nurse brought in, than in the baby, but that's okay. They were surprisingly gentle with her when they finally did go over to see her, and Grace was really excited to give her the teddy bear she picked out.

Enjoying the oreos






Presenting her with the teddy bear (it only looks like the cellophane is right on top of her face)

One more tired but happy shot of mother and babe

Well, that's all folks. Sorry for all the details!

One last shot of sweet baby Sophie