She's Here!!

Yes, we have confirmation that our baby is actually a girl!! Darcey Elizabeth Simmons was born tonight at 9:19 p.m. and weighed a measly 7 pounds 5 ounces. That's tiny compared to my other boys who were 8 lb 4, 9 lb 7, and 8 lb 15 . We have a chance to actually use those newborn size diapers!!

My labor went quickly after they broke my water at 6:00ish. At that time I was at about 2.5 centimeters dilated, and it only took me until 8:30 to be ready to push. Unfortunately, the epidural completely wore off between 6:15 and 7:15, and by that time I was in some real pain. The anesthesiologist came in and re-dosed me, and I've been terrific ever since. I believe that I was at 10 centimeters earlier than 8:30, because I could feel a little pressure, but they didn't check me until 8:30, and then they had me wait while they called my doctor in, who got here around 9.

I only had to push through about 3 contractions, which was impressive to the medical staff here, because Darcey was posterior, and typically posterior babies are harder to push out since they are basically upside down. They said that if she had been right side up, I most likely wouldn't have had to push hardly at all, she would have fallen out. The resident who helped deliver kept telling me that I was so good at laboring that I should have more kids. Ryan pointed out that it isn't the labor that's the hard part, it's actually raising the beasts once they're here!

Darcey has cried pretty much non-stop in the 45 minutes since she was born, and we are hoping that it is not indicative of future behavior. She looks almost exactly like Zacky did as a baby, except somehow more feminine. But her mouth is the same when she cries and her cry even sounds like his cry. I can't help but be nervous, I don't know what to expect from this baby and I'm hoping I can handle a crier.

That's about it for this update. I'm going to be moved to my recovery room in a few minutes, and Ryan is with Darcey in the nursery while she gets cleaned up a little. I've been starving all afternoon, but now that I can eat, I don't feel like it, which is a bummer. But I think I'll still send Ryan out to find me some dinner, otherwise it's going to be pretty painful at 2 a.m. when I decide that I definitely shouldn't have skipped a meal!

I forgot to bring the card reader to be able to post pictures from my camera, but I'm going to ask Ryan to do that when he gets home. Our neighbor Kelly is camped out in our house, she's been watching my kids all day today and is, in my mind, an absolute saint.

I'm just so relieved that it's over. I'm just hoping that having a baby is easier than I remember!!