She's Here! (as of 3 months ago that is)...

So about 3 1/2 months ago Sophie Ciera Dickinson came into this world. She was 6 lbs. 11 oz. and was 18 1/4 inches long. She was beautiful!! She had huge, pink lips, and a dark, full head of hair. She cried once when she first came out, but was quiet after that, just soaking things in. They put her right on my chest and nothing has ever felt so natural and good to me. It was a rough first couple of weeks--mostly on momma's end. I have never been so emotional, so overtired, or cried so much in my entire life. It was all soo overwhelming. But we made it! And she's such a good girl, we truly are blessed. She's healthy, happy, and grows by leaps and bounds everyday. I'll be posting more over the next weeks to catch up on the last few months we've missed.

Here is Daddy with his girl when she's only a few minutes old.



We were so excited to finally meet her!

Right after she was born.

Right when we got to the hospital. This is before the contractions really began. Don't worry, I looked and felt much worse later. Contractions truly make you feel like you are dying, or being split in two--the rumors are true. Both things suck, a lot. But I'm still alive! And I would do it all again, but not for another year or two. :)

This is right before we left for the hospital. My water broke at about 4:45 am. I got up because my stomach hurt, I know, the classic story. When I stood up I felt the water start to trickle out and I thought--no way! So I ran to the bathroom and sure enough, my water had broken. I got so excited I didn't know what to do first! So I kind of thought about the fact that I was about to have a baby for a minute and then I ran into the bedroom, threw the light on and excited yelled at Josh, "Josh, my water broke!" He sat straight up in bed and asked, "Are you serious?" No, I'm joking...:) He jumped out of bed and we both kind of ran around like chickens for the next little bit (I hadn't packed my bag yet--oops!)

I was grateful for my sister's advice, her water broke too, to take our time. Josh took a shower, I packed, washed my face, cleaned our room a little bit. Then we left for the hospital. I was shaking because of the adrenaline rush. I had minor contractions on the way to the hospital, but nothing too bad, about 7-5 minutes apart.

When we finally got to the hospital we didn't know where to go in. So first we parked across the street from where we were eventually told the labor unit was and walked around for awhile trying to read signs and figure out where to go in. Then we drove to the emergency room and asked, "Where do you go to have babies?" They started to tell us directions and then asked, "Are you in labor?" "Yep." They seemed surprised I wasn't screaming. They should have come into my room a few hours later--haha.

Eventually we found the labor and delivery unit and got checked in. It was pretty calm. My contractions were pretty regular but then they slowly faded away. So I walked, and walked, and walked to get them going again. But to no avail. So they gave me pitocin. I've decided that I hate pitocin. Boo! I went from 0 to 100 in about 2 seconds and it hurt! I didn't know what to do. I tried breathing through them, which sorta worked, but they hurt so bad they took my breath away. I had to really concentrate on breathing. Poor Josh. He said afterwards that I was so mean to everyone. I don't care. I was trying to survive. They couldn't get me the epidural fast enough. I LOVE epidurals!! What heavenly peace, especially after so much pain. Then, a few hours later, she was born at 5:52 pm. I only had to push a few times to get her out. Pushing was hard--especially to do it right. I finally got it toward the end, but it took some practice. The doctor was at his office across the street and had to run over because I was getting her out so quickly. He even had to yell at me to stop pushing at one point because she was coming out so quickly. I was so grateful for the epidural because I was able to enjoy the experience of having her more. I loved holding her afterwards--they let me hold her for along time after she was born without taking her away. I was surprised by that. I was pretty torn up, but I won't go into details :). Thank goodness for percocet! Nursing was hard too, I was surprised. But she was a good eater from minute one and we both caught on pretty quickly. I was soo tired and sore. And I literally cried all of the time, I couldn't help it. I loved her so much it hurt, I didn't know what to do with all of my new emotions and hormones. But we made it through the sleep deprivation and she's finally on a sleep schedule.

Sorry this is soo long! I'm making up for lost time. Love you all! I'll post more pictures in another post.

The end!