Our Sweet Angel

Well, our beautiful little girl has been with us for a month and this is my first post about her. I know pathetic, but hey it's been busy. Life is pretty crazy with a newborn and an almost 2 year old. They sure keep us on our toes. If we thought things were crazy with Collin, boy were we wrong. Anyway I'm going to post about her birth since it is long over due and so important for our family records.
Here is me at 39 weeks

So I was dilated to a 4 for a few weeks and effaced and nothing was happening. I was even playing basketball and volleyball (the week before she was born).Collin was 4 days late and I was afraid the same was going to happen. My mom was coming out to help with things and I was afraid if Marissa didn't come on time, I would miss out on my mom's help. So...since I was so "ready" as the doctor put it, she stripped my membranes on Friday the 21st to get things moving. However, since our children are just as stubborn as their parents, nothing happened. The doctor said to call the hospital on Monday to be induced if there was no progress. So I called, but for the next 2 days just had to wait since apparently it was a crazy baby time, who knew. Finally on Tuesday the 25th at 11:45pm I got a call from the hospital saying they had an opening and to come on in. I jumped out of bed (Adam was a little less enthusiastic since we had just been asleep for 30 minutes or so) and we got going pretty quick.
They started me on pitocin around 1:30am and not much was happening so they said to try and sleep...yeah right, who can sleep at a time like that, well I should rephrase that, what woman in labor can sleep, Adam slept just fine. Around 8am still nothing was really happening so Adam went and got some breakfast and of course 5 minutes after he left, and a few minutes before the doctor was coming in to break my water, I felt a huge gush of water. My water broke with Collin so I knew what it was. I called the nurses and instantly my contractions started coming full force. It was so painful. I have to give so much credit to those women who go natural, as crazy as I think you are. It was really painful. I was fully expecting an epidural so I was not prepared for the strong contractions. For whatever reason, it took the anesthesiologist an hour to come in. By that time I was really hurting and doing all I could to breath through the contractions. Finally the epidural kicked in and oh it was soooo nice.
The nurses said to let them know when I started feeling pressure. I quickly assured them that I already was. They checked me and I was already an 8. They started to get things ready for the delivery. I said I was feeling even more pressure, they checked me again and sure enough, I was fully dilated and effaced. Well I don't need to go into any more detail about the actual delivery other than it was wonderful (as crazy as that sounds). It really is an amazing experience (thanks to modern medicine). Adam is so supportive and loving. He is a great coach. My mom got to be there and even though she said it was pretty gross (I can't blame her, I don't think I ever need to be at labors besides my own), she said it was incredible at the same time. It was quite a bit harder than Collin and took much more pushing, but after some hard work, our beautiful baby girl entered the world at 10:26am, 2 hours after my water broke. The first thing I asked Adam was if it was a girl. The ultrasounds said it was a girl, but I was so sure I would never have a girl, I just had to check. It was a girl, she was beautiful and healthy and they gave her to me right away. What a beautiful miracle it truly is. I was able to bond with Marissa right away and we enjoyed those special first moments. When they took her to weigh her, I realized why it was so much harder, she was a whopping 8lbs 11oz, compared to Collin's 7lbs 1 oz, a huge difference if you ask me.
It was so fun to introduce Collin to "his baby".

He didn't really know what to think and was pretty scared to see me in a weird gown on a strange bed in a foreign place, but we got some cute pictures and he was interested for about a minute.

Marissa is such a doll. She eats and sleeps so well. She is so easy going, which is such a blessing since Collin is a typical two year old and trying our patience. Although there are definitely challenging days and moments we wouldn't change a thing. Our two children are miracles from our loving Heavenly Father and we can't imagine life without them. We feel so blessed to have these precious children. Families are such a blessing. We have so much to figure out, but we are enjoying learning with each other.