She's Here

Have I overplayed my suspense card yet? Sorry y'all -- although the e-mails and comments and prayers you sent today and yesterday truly touched my heart. Thanks for your prayers, for your support, for your laughter and for your friendship.

And now -- I'm oh-so-pleased to tell you that Sparkles Diamond Love Well entered the world at 3:30 this afternoon. I'm just as pleased to tell you that it was the easiest, most uncomplicated birth imaginable. God answered our prayers in such a big way.

I'm under a pretty strict Internet time limit at this point (commandant's Corey's orders), but I had to at least pop in to share a few pictures.

We were admitted to the hospital around 7:30 this morning. I was given the cutest band to hold the monitors on my rather large tummy.





















Around 10:30, I was given the blessed epidural. I wasn't having kick-butt contractions at that point, but the whole hospital staff here was so sensitive to the fact that I've never had an easy, non-stressful labor process. So they urged me to go ahead and get it before my doctor broke my water.

Shortly thereafter, I decided to do some deep meditating to pass the time.

















OK, maybe not deep meditating. But still.

(And may I just thank the scores of you who put up funny posts today? Because it was a great distraction.)

Just to prove that I really was thinking about y'all, here's the blog post I was working on before my blood pressure took a dip.

2:00 PM

Well my friends, here I am -- sitting half upright in a hospital bed, wearing the most fetching hospital gown around (I keep thinking What Would Big Mama say about this style?) and feeling very little of my legs.

That's right -- I've been epiduralized, blessed be the name of the LORD. And to further delight me, the Almighty put me at a hospital with wireless Internet access. I literally laughed out loud when I saw that on a sign this morning. I truly think He did that just to remind me that He doesn't just give us life, He gives it abundantly, beyond what we can even ask or imagine.

At last check, I was 6 centimeters dilated.

And then, I got woozy (as Madame Blueberry would say) and had to lay down for a while.

By 3:15, I was ready to push -- although, to my utter amazement and delight, I still couldn't feel a thing. And at 3:27, Sparkles was born.

















She is absolutely perfect -- 7 pounds, 4 ounces, lots of dark hair like her Daddy. Since she wasn't in the birth canal long, she has no bruising or swelling or other complications that mar a girl's good looks.

















Both of our other children were born late at night. So the idea that I could have a baby and then have dinner was startling to me. But it worked out well for Natalie and Connor, who got to spend the evening with us at the hospital, admiring their new little sister.

















Sparkles had her first bath, much to her chagrin. She let us know in no uncertain terms that this was not in her contract.

















But my, oh my -- how that first bath does tire them out. She's sleeping now, so it would probably be wise of me to do the same.
















Good night! And thank you for your prayers. They meant so much to us. And by the way, what are you doing up at this hour? Shouldn't you be in bed?

*Yawn*