IT'S ABOUT TIME-

October 1, 2008, 9:31 PM. 7 lbs 10 oz, 21 1/2 inches. Here are some pictures of our beautiful baby...she looks bald, but she really does have hair in back. Life could never be better than the moment she was laid in my arms. It was AMAZING. The next most amazing thing was the look on Kevin's face as he held his baby girl for the first time. Two moments I will cherish forever.

This is just a few hours after she was born...she would not close

her mouth while sleeping. It was so cute!

These were all taken this morning. She definitely is an Allred! She has Kev's cheeks, nose, and chin for sure. She is quiet a chunk though. The double chin and baby fat rolls on her thighs are so cute. She is so pink as well. I love the little angel's kiss on her forehead as well...okay I love EVERYTHING about her.

As for the labor and delivery, I was induced about 8:30 on Wed morning with my first dose of Prostaglandin gel inserted into my cervix. I started at 1.5 cm and 80% according to my nurse. After 1 hr of lying almost flat and then another hr of walking in the halls, we injected another dose. The contractions started pretty good during this hour and the hour of walking turned more into 30 minutes of walking 15-20 feet and then trying to find a place to sit so I could breathe through the contraction better. After the third does, my back labor was excrutiating and I was begging for an epidural. My amazing nurse finally talked me into getting in the bath and trying to relax and then she would get the anesthesiologist for me. Well, I was dilated to a four right before getting into the tub and I was amazed how much I could relax (okay not really relax, but I was able to remember to breathe a whole lot better and get through each contraction without crying.) After I got the heaven sent epidural and then within an hour or so was dilated to 7. This was about 4 PM and so we thought I would just keep progressing and have the baby in the next few hours. Well my water broke sometime soon after this and I was dilated to almost a 8 by sixish. Well at this time we found that I had a forebag (which is an extra little bag of amniotic fluid that gets trapped under the baby's head, or at least this is what I understood it to be.) my progression slowed until my next nurse at about 8 came in and broke the bag. then the words I was not ready for "Wow, that is a lot of meconium" I was not prepared and kind of freaked, but my nurse reassured me that new studies show that this isn't as horrible as it has been thought for years. She explained my doctor would suction her mouth and nose before I pushed the rest of her body out so she would not swallow and/or inhale it. Things started progressing once again as did the pain, yes even with the epidural. because her head was progressing down I guess she was blocking nerves from getting the medication. I was getting excrutiating pain again, but now right over the ball of my right hip. We decided to just start pushing and try to get her out because the pain was so bad. Well, after pushing through 3 contractions and then being told to stop because she was coming and my doctor was not there, I was very surprised. He luckily was coming in to deliver a placenta of a women who had her baby on the way to the hospital. He walked straight into my room, gowned and gloved and with the next two pushes, our beautiful baby arrived. Her belly had to be suctioned a little to get some junk out and she was coughing up a lot of junk from her lungs as well, but in a few minutes was fine.

Sorry if you didn't want all the details, but I am so sleep deprived that I couldn't think to shorten it and the complete story piled out. But life is good and now we will have pictures to post to make our blog more enjoyable.