She's here!

So much has happened since my last post!  WOW!  We are now a family of 3!!  YAY!  One would swear more than just one little being came out though!  This whole week it has taken 3 adults to take care of one little infant!  And for 2 days I had an army of nurses to assist!

Before we go to far down this road, I DID take a 41 week picture!

On Friday, June 8th I had a doctor's appointment where we found out that I was still not dilated and we made arrangements for me to go into the hospital on Sunday night to receive a drug to help my body figure out that it's time to dilate. 

Friday all day I was really feeling uncomfortable.  It felt like she was bunched up all in the front of my belly from time to time - and my hip/leg/nerves in that area were really touchy and sensitive.  We went to hang out with friends that night and although I had a lot of fun, I was not feeling the best the whole evening.  We got home around 11pm and my nerve in my hip was off the charts painful.  The only way of somewhat soothing it was to push in on that part of my body!  My legs were restless and I could NOT get comfortable at all.  I was starting to really worry and cry when Brian puts his hand on my stomach and says, "Babe...your stomach is really tight...are you sure you're not having a contraction?"  A light went off in my head! Now THAT made a lot more sense.  I was just so focused on being induced that I didn't even think that I would start to go naturally! ha!

By 5am the contractions were 6-7 minutes apart.  I finally woke Brian up at 6 because they were dipping into 5 minutes apart.  Time to go to the hospital and get checked out.  We packed up our stuff and and headed out. 

Upon arriving we were escorted to a room where we were told that I was 1cm dilated and we were to hang out for a couple hours to see if anything changed.  My doctor came in roughly 60 minutes later and offered 2 options. 1) go home and wait things out...potentially come back the next day to be induced 2) she would break my water right then and there!  Whoa! Since both options had the same outcome - I chose #2.  I mean - if I was just going to be back there the next day - and I'm already a week late...I felt that this was a perfect opportunity to move forward.

Soon water was broken and the labor process began.  After quite a few contractions to breathe through, more pitocin than I thought was necessary, an epidural and lots of patience - we were ready to push just before 5pm.  The nurse joked that I had to be done by 6pm because she was off at 7pm and had some other things to wrap up before she left.  Well - she got her wish!  At 5:26pm little Claire Elizabeth Schupbach was born!

She's pretty unhappy in this pic! She definitely has a good set of lungs on her and there's not a question as to what she absolutely doesn't like.  She is NOT digging anything at this moment.  This was just a few minutes after she was born!!  If you look really close you can see her birth weight!  7lbs 4oz. 

Here's our little family on "film" for the first time.  What an incredible moment.  There's just no words to describe what the feelings are...the whole process was so incredible.  Labor wasn't easy...definitely the biggest physical challenge I've been through.  In the end, we have a beautiful addition to our family.  We were back and forth on the name, but in the end we liked Claire the best.

There's so much more to type, but for now I need to rest because she's due to wake up in an hour or so...and I hear her being a little restless now!