She is here!

We welcomed McKenzie Erin into the world on November 15, 2009 at 9:24 a.m. She was only 37 weeks 2 days, but was ready to greet the world! She weighed in at 6 lbs 12 ozs and 19 inches long. She had a full head of gorgeous dark hair and lighter skin.

As for labor, it was not what I was expecting at all. I woke up on Sunday morning at 5 a.m. with some contractions, but I wasn't sure if they were really contractions at all or just Braxton-Hicks. I came into the living room and watched some tv and did some knitting and around 6:30 or so, I realized that I was having to breath through them and that they were getting more and more painful. So I woke up Dan and asked him to start a warm bath for me, thinking that if they were the "real" thing, they wouldn't stop. And they didn't. They just got worse and were around 3-4 minutes apart at that point. By 8ish, we realized that we should probably call the midwife and she said to go ahead an come in. Forgot to mention that it had snowed all night the evening before and it was still snowing, so we knew the drive would be a challenge and possibly slow. The drive was almost unbearable for me as the contractions were about 2 minutes apart by then, and I didn't know it at the time, but I was in the transition phase, where labor is most painful and the hardest part of the whole experience.

We finally got the hospital and they took me into triage in in L & D and we had a great nurse, Cheri check me in. She could see that the contractions were coming fast and they were extremely painful. Jessica Breese, my midwife arrived soon after and she checked me and I was 10 centimeters!!! Holy cow! Wasn't expecting to hear that at all. Soon after that my water broke on it's own and I was told that I was going to deliver this baby soon and that it was going to be in that tiny triage room, but I was ready to get her out. Not sure how many pushes I actually had...maybe pushed through 3-5 contractions and a bit later she was out. We also found out that she was facing up (or posterior), which makes it harder to push her out. Our midwife said that if she had come out face down (the correct way) that we probably would have had her a whole lot faster and that wouldn't have been good since we had quite a long drive in because of the snow. We were so amazed to finally see her and hold her and she was perfect! She did really well for having such a fast labor and delivery.

We are home now and adjusting to having a 4 year old and a new baby. Brynn is great with her and being such a big girl and listening to mommy and daddy most of the time. She loves feeling McKenzie's skin as she thinks it is so soft!

Dan and I can't get over that she is really here already. She is so alert and in awe of her surroundings when she is awake. It's just fun to sit there and watch her little eyes wander around.

Thank you to all who have called, texted, and facebook'd. :) We love you all!