Lucy Grace!!

Finally! The reason for this long series of posts: pictures of the baby! Lucy Grace was born January 23rd at 12:18am. She was 8 pounds, 8 ounces and 21 inches long. She has blonde hair! If I hadn't seen them place her directly on my chest after birth, I would have sworn they had switched babies, just because I was dead sure she would have dark hair. But no, she is my blonde-haired, blue-eyed baby.

We were actually scheduled for an induction on the 22nd, but the pitocin took so long to kick in and the baby so long to come down far enough to break the water that labor didn't really start until 9-10 hours after they started the pitocin. Also they did an ultrasound to try and make sure she wasn't a bigger baby than Calvin was (which would have been bad... 10lbs is about my limit). But they actually measured her at 8lbs 10oz, so they weren't far off. Once they broke my water at about 8-9pm things happened pretty quickly, and I lasted about an hour before I wanted the epidural, and then it seemed just a blink before I was telling the nurse that there was something pressing against my tailbone that needed to come OUT. Then I was pushing and then she was out after a few contractions. They put her right on my chest and she just kind of laid there, calmly adjusting to new surroundings. They rubbed her down good and she made a couple squawks, so they knew she was ok, but she didn't really cry until much later when they cleaned her up good. All in all though, I don't think she's really squalled more than twice in her week-long life. She is so calm and sleeps through anything and eats like a champ.

And then there were four... She is beautiful and there never was a sweeter baby in the world. :)