Here's how it went down!

We went in on Thursday the 24th of July at 9am to be induced. My friend Melany was a saint to watch Tyler and Paige for the day. They just love playing with Kate and Collin.

When we got to the hospital we went to check in and the chatty lady there told us in SO MANY words that they had tried to call the house all morning to tell us that there was no room in the inn. Luckily, they had our home number wrong and by the time they figured it out, we were on our way. How could they turn us down then. They squeezed us in and started me on the pit around 10am. Shane was betting she'd be arriving at 3:00, and I guessed 4:00. Morgan had her own idea about that.

We had Tyler and Paige in the middle of the night, so being in labor in the day was a little different. A brilliant nurse anesthetist gave me my pain free epidural early on so I didn't feel many hard contractions, but strong medications always make me feel really anxious. From about 12:00 pm to 4:00 pm I was restless and irritable despite the fact that I could feel very little pain. Shane was restless and irritable because his predicted time of arrival had passed. The doctor was restless because he thought I would be progressing faster. (In all of this time I had only gone from a 2 to a 4 even though he had broken my water) Around 6 or 6:30 I started to relax a little and dozed for a few minutes. I was then at a 6. About 10 minutes later the nurses were swarming and one of them was calling the doc (who had gone to run a few errands) while the others told me not to push. A few pushes later at 7:17, there was little Morgan.

Now, I always thought that it would be so gross to have the doc plop that messy baby onto my stomach, you know, like they do on the baby story. Tyler and Paige were cleaned off before I held them. This doctor delivered her and plopped her onto my stomach right away. . . . and . . . wouldn't you know, I bawled like a baby. She was beautiful, even with all that gunk on her! It's such a relief to hear their little cries. I cried and she cried, and Shane cried. For the first time, Shane got to cut the umbilical cord. Everything went so smoothly. We really are blessed.

Morgan's demeanor (if you can have that at 6 days old) is a lot like Tyler. She doesn't cry much, she just fusses a little. She sleeps like any newborn, but when she is awake her eyes are open and taking it all in. She's a good eater, a good burper and we're working on the sleep schedule. She loves Shane's big warm hands and she loves the sound of Paige's voice because Paige talked to her every day when I was pregnant. She doesn't mind a bath, but hates to be cold. She has little skinny legs and arms and the longest fingers. I think it's amazing how well we know her in such a short time. Tyler washes his hands after school and heads straight for Morgan when he gets home from school. We're a family of 5 now, and we couldn't be more happy about it!

Little sisters can sure tire you out!

The kids had been at the hospital all day hanging out with me.