....And...Bree makes three!

She is here!  Our sweet little critter was born at 12:04 pm this afternoon.  She weighed 7 lbs even, and was 18 1/2 inches long.  Her name is Bree Michonne Terry and she is beautiful!

We went in for our induction this morning at 8:00 am.  I felt lots of contractions last night and I was dilated to a 4+ when I first got checked.  As I started to feel the contraction pain, I asked for my epidural.  I figured I was going to get one at some point anyway, so I might as well get it early and avoid any pain!  During the epidural I felt the "electrical shock" that women sometimes feel.  I had not felt it with Tess or Miles, but boy, did I feel it this time.  It was crazy.  I imagine that's what it would feel like to be hit by lightning.  I could feel the electric shock go from my back, all down my leg, and out my foot.  Bryan said my whole leg twitched from it.  At first the epidural wasn't kicking in and I was still feeling quite a bit of pain during the contractions, even though I was pushing the little "give me more drugs" button as often as I could.  The anesthesiologist came back in and gave me a "re-dose" right into the epidural tube.  Whoa betty....it really worked that time!  I have never been so numb!  The nurse re-checked my cervix and I had gone from a 6 to a 10 in about 20 minutes. They told me it was time to push. I felt completely useless during the pushing because I was so stinkin' numb, but it was lovely to feel absolutely no pain, And apparently I did OK because I probably pushed for only 10 minutes and she was here!

 At the hospital, they have started doing more immediate skin-to-skin contact with newborns, which I think is awesome.  They used to take the baby to the crib for the initial stuff: a quick wipe down, weighing and measuring, sucking the goo out of their nose & throat, etc.  Now, they place the baby on mom's chest immediately and do that stuff right there (except for weighing, of course.)  Then, when baby is cleaned up a bit, they lay her right on mom's skin to keep her temperature up and to help get her heartrate steady.  It was so neat; I loved having her right by me so soon.

 (So sorry for the "lots of skin" shot, but this was right during our skin-to-skin time.)

 Bree has lots of dark hair!  Here she is after her first bath.  It's her "mug shot." 

 And there's nothing cuter than a sweet little newborn yawn....

We are so happy that this sweet little angel is in our family!  I was just praying and hoping for her to be healthy, and so far, she's perfectly healthy and strong; sweet as can be.