Our Newest Addition!!!

This is rather lengthy. For those who don't care about the details you can skip down to the pictures.

Our precious baby girl made her debut at 9:04am today. She weighed in at 7 lbs 1 oz. and is 20 inches long. She is healthy as can be and has a great set of lungs on her. She also came with a nice head of dark hair!!! Lets hope it doesn't all fall out. She truly is perfect and we are so happy she is here.

Timing couldn't have been more perfect. Nate is still in the middle of doing all his crazy orthopedic rotations. He has been in Cleveland just an hour and 15 minutes away for the last month, but starts a new one in Columbus (2 hours) away on Monday. Even though he is only an hour away he still isn't able to come home at night so we only see him on the weekends when he isn't on call. I wanted so badly to have this baby in time to take her home for the weekend so we could spend some family time together. To add some stress to the situation Nate's car broke down Sunday morning on his way to work. I had to go pick him up and take him the rest of the way to the hospital and wait for him to round on his patients before we called AAA to come tow our car back to Sandusky. Since Nate has to have a car for work I was left without transportation for 4 days. Since we are 30 minutes from the hospital this was a cause for concern in the case I went into labor and Nate couldn't make it back in time to get me. Because of this I had decided maybe it was best to be induced Monday the 4th so that we could have a little control over the situation. After my appointment that morning I was scheduled to go in to the hospital that night at 8:30pm. I had a slight breakdown as the reality hit me that I was having a baby that day and my days of one-on-one time with Cambri would be coming to an end. Once I had my moment of tears I decided I was ready and okay with my decision. That was until my induction was canceled due to an understaffed hospital. I was then rescheduled for the following evening...that fell through and I was pushed til Friday morning at 7am. Honestly I didn't want to be induced at all but it was more important to me to have this baby in time to have her home for the weekend. With Nate being away from us for the last 3 months I just wanted some family time. So the thought of waiting until Friday morning sent me into another breakdown. If this was the case we wouldn't get to go home until Sunday morning at the earliest.

Long story short...prayers were answered and baby came all on her own when my water broke at 2:30am today (Thursday, just one day past my due date. Better than the 4 days I went over with Cam).

I called Nate so he could start making the trek back from Cleveland to pick me up so we could make the trip to the hospital together. Contractions hadn't started yet so I took a shower and cleaned up a few dirty dishes while I waited for him.

We got to the hospital around 4 or 4:30am. At this point the contractions were getting more painful but I was still okay. My labor with Cams was 17 hours from the time my water broke so I was expecting a long day. Fortunately things couldn't have gone smoother or more perfectly. By 6:15am I was ready for the drugs. I had a few contractions that pretty much made me lose control and I knew at that point I wasn't going to go natural. I am not tough enough and honestly I am okay with that. I love me some good drugs that is for sure. It also didn't help that I was barfing like crazy. Nate was amazing at coaching me but I know he was glad I chose to get the drugs.

I got the epidural around 7:15am and baby was here by 9:04am. I couldn't believe how fast things were going. When the doc came in and said it was time to push Nate and I were shocked. I pushed about 4 times and she was here. I can't complain about a 6 1/2 hour labor from start to finish.

I love everything about the way this labor and delivery went.

I can't believe I am so lucky to be the mom of two very beautiful and amazing little girls.

I am very overwhelmed with gratitude for the many blessings that my family has been given over the last few months. It has been challenging indeed to have Nate so far away, but we have been watched over and taken care of. Even though my faith has wavered often, I know that my Heavenly Father has listened to and answered many of my prayers.

Enjoy the pics. I hope to get some more up soon.

Here is my belly in all its glory. (Chels this is for you). This was taken just 3 days before I went into labor.

My precious babies. Lets hope Nate can handle all these girls!

I don't know why this picture is turned sideways but check out that hair!!! At first I didn't think she looked much like Cam but now I see a lot of resemblance.

Cam runs from cameras so this is the best we could do.

Our little family

So far Cambri has done well with the baby. I think it helps that baby sister had a present waiting for her at the hospital when she and Grandma Rencher arrived.

More pictures to come...