It's a girl!

Yesterday afternoon (October 24, 2011) we gave birth to our beautiful daughter.  She was born at home in our bedroom after 24 hours or so of labor.  I was supported by my amazing husband Osei, and a team of 3 midwives.  It was intense and absolutely the hardest thing that I've ever done, but worth every moment.  Osei and I are head over heels in love her.  I remember seconds after she was born looking at Osei, shouting out, "We had a BABY!" and feeling overwhelming love for Osei, that I couldn't possibly love him any more than I did, and then overwhelming love for our new baby.  It was absolutely incredible.  We feel so blessed.

She is 7 lbs 4 oz, and 20.25" long and was born at 2:18 pm.  Apgars were 8 & 9 and she is now latching very well.  We wanted to get to know her a bit first before giving her a name (but she is no longer just "Omee" the fetus).  Baby is healthy and in our opinion, absolutely perfect. She was born with a beautiful full head of hair and both Osei and I just want to kiss her all over.  

We are still pretty exhausted after laboring all night long (Sunday night).  Sunday during the day I was in pretty easy early labor, and things started getting intense (active labor) in the middle of the night Sunday night, going into Monday.  I was in active labor for about 12 hours, and pushed for an hour.  Somehow I went through transition twice (at least it felt like it)!  A few different times labor slowed down enough that I could lay down and fall asleep between contractions, but overall I don't know how to describe it besides intense (think projectile vomiting).  But somehow the moment I first held her on my chest I instantly forgot everything about how challenging labor was.  Osei was an absolutely incredible birth partner.  I could not have done it without him.  He is smitten with our baby girl.  Our midwives were also fantastic.

We will send an update shortly with a name (and another picture, hopefully we can get her to wake up and show her beautiful brown eyes!).  For now, we're trying to get some rest.  Though we went to bed early last night, I could hardly sleep because I just wanted to look at her and listen to her breathe next to us.  

I'm working on the detailed version of the birth story and am more than happy to share.  Please email me back if you are interested in reading though.  :)

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers.  We are truly, truly blessed.

Love and blessings,

Amy, Osei, and baby girl May