she's here!

Mae Elizabeth was born at 6:10 pm on Tuesday, May 17th. She weighed 7 lb 13 oz and measured 20.5 inches long. She is healthy and adorable, and we are both recovering well.

My labor started around 10 pm Monday night, just a few hours after sharing my last post. We left for the hospital around 1:30 a.m. after making the necessary arrangements at home (take out the trash, fill Charlie's seed dish, turn off my alarm clock, etc). Labor was fairly long and much more painful than I expected, even with an epidural. The scariest part was probably needing to have the first epidural removed and replaced. How many people can say they had two epidurals?? Dan (Daddy!) and Mom (Grandma!) encouraged me through everything. Finally, after 20 hours of labor and some assistance from the doctor with his medical-grade salad tongs, Mae finally joined us as a healthy, screaming newborn!

After lots of "kangaroo care" time following delivery, Mae got her first bath and her hospital bracelets. I made sure to count 10 fingers and 10 toes since we had been joking that one ultrasound looked like she had 6 fingers!

We did lots of cuddling and not much sleeping while in the hospital. Daddy got a crash course in diaper changing and much, much more practice over the next few days.

We came home from the hospital on Thursday and are trying to establish a routine for our little family!