Happy Birthday

The day has finally arrived (not on time, but a little early). We went in to the hospital last night to avoid the close call we had last time, and it turns out we came too early. Rach was admitted and given an epidural, and then we waited. And waited. And finally decided to try and sleep a little in the room. And then waited some more. Finally around 5 AM they called the doctor and had him come to help deliver a baby. A short while later (at least to me, Rach may feel it wasn't that short) we were treated by our new baby girl!

Rachel additions: I had been having some contractions all week, one night for 3 hours but then they stopped.  I knew she was coming soon, as my little Meldrums like to be a bit early for everything in life.  :)

We were at soccer and it happened to be a night that both girls had a game at the same time and Mike had to referee Allie's game, so I had Miles and we were making our way between the two games to watch aka chasing Miles all over the soccer complex.  I started having painful contractions during Hadley's game and started to time them and they were about 10 minutes apart.  Nothing to be alarmed about, but they continued and were painful enough that I had to walk through them.  

We got the kids to bed and then called my cousin Brooke to come over and stay with our kids while we head to the hospital.  The contractions were about 7 minutes apart at this point and quite painful.  We arrived at the hospital, checked in and were admitted and I was at 5 cm.  I told them my last one came 45 minutes after I arrived at the hospital, so they quickly got me to a laboring room and an epidural administered.  

It only wanted to work on one side (again), so they had me turn onto my right side to get it working on that side. This was about 10:00 pm and I though, hey, maybe we will have her before midnight.  Ha.

Hours later, my water still had not broken and I felt like I needed to push, so they checked me again and I was finally a 10.  They called the doctor and he arrived around 6 am.  4 contractions later and a tear, Hazel was born!  

She is a healthy, lovely little girl. 

She measured in at 21 inches and 6.15 lbs, and only had a little whimper of a cry.

After they doctored her all up, we got to see her more closely. She is wonderful and comes into a family that may be a little too excited to see another baby.

Mom got to hold the newest member of the family after a long night. It was wonderful.

After a long night, I got to come home, clean up and pick up the kids from a friend. They were super excited. When Allie woke up she immediately got excited to see the babysitter as that meant there was a new baby. When they got to see a picture of her from us at the hospital Allie gave an "Aww, she is so cute!" and Miles just smiled at the picture (Hadley still was asleep - that's my girl!).

First order of business for the kids was to see mom and their new little sister. Everyone wanted a turn holding her, and they did a great job being gentle.

Miles was very cute getting to know his new little sister.

Everyone wanted to take turns holding her (I had to get int he rotation too).

Allie is a big sister again, and she is loving it.

Hadley loves playing with baby dolls and is eager to help out with the real thing now. 

Everyone is bursting with joy, and we even decided on a name (while at the hospital this time, so we are cutting it closer each time). Welcome to the Meldrum family Hazel Kate. We will help you to have lots of fun times in your life. Welcome to the fun!