She's Here!

May 1, 2012

Throughout my pregnancy, the due date had stayed pretty much the same - April 30, 2012.  My mom and dad arrived about a week before and my last official day of work was April 24th.  I really had a feeling she would be coming early.  We had a few last minute things to buy for her room, and some clothes to get, but by the time the next weekend rolled around and Kathryn arrived, everyone was ready and anxiously awaiting our new arrival.  Dad even made his famous eggplant parmesan in hopes of helping her to arrive on Grandma Dot's birthday on April 27th, but to no avail.  Below is a family photo on my due date.  This is the last picture of our family of three...:)

I must admit I was suprised as Tommy and I headed to bed the night of April 30th.  Jack had been born 2 days early and I always had the feeling that this baby was going to be early as well.  Well, I guess she was a little late - but not much.  At about 1 AM, I started feeling contractions pretty steadily.  Tommy quickly downloaded the handy contraction timer app on his phone and sure enough, they were only 5 minutes apart.  We woke up Mom, Dad and Kathryn and headed to the hospital (everyone except Dad who stayed home with sleeping big brother).  By the time we got to the hospital, contractions were only 3 1/2 minutes apart and starting to be pretty painful.  From that point on, it seemed like everything happened really fast.  I was 6 cm dialated the first time they checked, so we knew it wouldn't be long.  We woke up the anaesthesiologist and got the epidural as quick as we could, but not before quite a few really painful contractios - WAY worse than they had been with Jack.  Thank goodness for the epidural - I honestly don't know how I would have made it otherwise!  Things slowed down for a while after the epidural, I rested and Tommy even got in an hour or so of sleep.  The nurse came in, said that Dr. Harn was on his way, and asked me to try one practice push.  At that point, the nurse realized that Olivia was ready to make her arrival, whether Dr. Harn was there or not and decided that maybe it was best for me not to push until he arrived.  Fortunately, he did arrive shortly thereafter and, after 2 pushes, our baby girl was here!

Miss Olivia Grace Mhire entered the world at 7:15am on May 1, 2012 weighing 7 pounds, 2 ounces and 18 1/2 inches long.  She was absolutely perfectly pink with not the slightest newborn baby conehead and a great set of lungs!  That moment when your baby is born is always such a surreal moment of relief that everything is OK and pure joy at seeing this little person who you know will be such a huge part of your life from that moment forward and who already holds your heart in her tiny hand.

Here's one of the first pictures of Mom and her new daughter:

Just a few minutes old and already has Daddy wrapped around her little finger:

Dad in his scrubs with Olivia's tiny footprints

We were blessed that both Grandma and Nana could be present in the delivery room when she was born.  It was love at first sight when Grandma met her first granddaughter:

And for Nana, too:

Whenever I see this picture, it's hard to believe that she's just a few minutes old - her eyes are so bright:

Our wonderful nurse that helped with the delivery:

Dr. Harn was great throughout my pregnancy.  I feel really lucky to have found such a great doctor!

After dropping Jack off at daycare in the morning, Grandpa came by the hospital to meet his newest grandchild:

In the afternoon, Grandma and Grandpa picked up Jack from school and brought him to the hospital to meet his little sister.  He arrived with a beautiful potted rose for mom and a toy for Miss Olivia.  You can tell from the pictures that he is very excited to show it to her.  Here is our first picture as a family of 4:

Jack was very good with his little sister.  He was really gentle with her by 2-year-old standards and showered her with hugs and kisses.  While I know they won't always be the best of friends, I'm so excited to see them grow up and experience life together!

This picture was taken in the hospital the next morning.  Still not the best picture of me, but at least my hair is brushed and contacts in this time.  I love the way Jack is looking at Olivia in this one.

The day before we left the hospital, the photographers made their way to our room to take a few pictures of Olivia.  They did the same thing when Jack was born, and all of the pictures were absolutely horrible, so I didn't count on liking any of them, but to my surprise, I liked every one!  Maybe it was the crazy pregnancy hormones, but I even teared up when they showed them to me in the hospital room (set to cheesy music and everything).  And yes, we bought the disc with all the pictures on it.  They got us, but aren't they cute?!

We stayed in the hospital 2 nights and even got a yummy steak and lobster dinner on the last night, but I was so ready to head home and begin our life as a family of four.  Stay tuned!!