Heidi's Birth Day

We are getting settled back at home and enjoying our sweet little girl tremendously!  I just took Heidi and Tobin on a little walk and loved hearing him tell her all about the things he was hearing, seeing, and even smelling.  Tobin is a wonderful big brother already and I can't wait to watch their special relationship grow.

I wanted to share about our big day Tuesday, mainly for my own benefit.  I figured a few weeks of sleepless nights could wipe these precious memories away and I don't want that to happen!  Here's how it went:

One of our Smith family traditions is to go out for donuts on each of our birthdays and this was no exception!  Here's Tobin making his choice:

Here's the last picture of me with Heidi in my belly.  I was officially 38 weeks and 3 days along:

We checked into the hospital at 8:30 and the induction started at 10:30.  Labor started about 30 minutes later.  I was doing great with the labor and staying on top of the contractions.  However, I was discouraged when I found out I was progressing very slowly.  At 3:30, the doctor decided to break my water to get things moving a little quicker.  I had hoped to have a natural, drug-less labor and delivery but my plans quickly changed after my water was broken.  The contractions came so hard and on top of one another, I was not getting much of a break between them.  I was confined to the bed because every time I tried to get up and try a new position, Heidi's heart rate dropped.  The pain was also making my blood pressure spike to scary levels.  Two hours later, I got an epidural.  After the epidural kicked in, I progressed ridiculously fast!  At around 8:30, the nurse came to see how far along I was.  She looked at me and said "Don't laugh, don't move.  I can see the baby and I'm afraid you'll have her if you do anything."  My doctor arrived five minutes later and after three or four pushes, Heidi arrived at 8:41pm.  

We had Tobin in to be the first one to meet her.  He seemed a little hesitant at first, mainly because I had a nasty looking IV in my arm that he couldn't seem to take his eyes off of.  After lots of reassurance that I was alright, he wanted to hold Heidi and couldn't wait to introduce her to the rest of the family.  He is so proud of his little sister!