Miss Rose Marie!

After 10 short hours of labor, Rose Marie Meyer officially made her appearance on February 11th at 5:49 PM!  Weighing in at 7 lbs 6oz and measuring 21 inches, we are absolutely thrilled to finally get to see her sweet face!  We are all at home and doing well.  Rose is perfecting the art of being a piglet and quickly regaining the 7 oz or so she lost in the first few days.  Anna is adjusting to being a big sister and doing great--she is very curious about Buzzy Bee and all of her noises and various input and output.  Mom and Dad are sleep deprived but feeling absolutely blessed to have two perfect and beautiful daughters.

The story, for the curious:

We went in at sparrowfart on Monday morning and went right to the straight stuff this time (Pitocin), which almost immediately started regular contractions 2-3 minutes apart.  On the theory that slow and steady wins the race, Rose took her time...and mom took the epidural around noon.  Right around this time we also broke the water and drained her pool, only to find out that there was meconium in the amniotic fluid.  This meant that we had quite the crowd there when the big event finally arrived, in order to make sure that she was healthy and did not inhale any meconium into her lungs.  That happened around 5, when after a flip to my right side and 4-5 VERY strong contractions we magically went from 6-7 cm to 10 in the space of a few minutes.  After that, her entourage officially arrived: all of the nurses on the floor, the OB, the pediatrician, the respiratory therapist and probably a few other people I failed to catalog.  After a quick test push we determined it was time to get moving, only to find that the cord was wrapped around her neck.  This meant some very fast and hard pushing to get her out as quickly as possible, but she had a good scream as soon as she came out, which was music to our ears.  In the end, no suction or oxygen required--she was and remains our perfectly healthy little angel.  We checked out of the hospital Tuesday evening and brought her home to begin our lives as a family of four!

More to come of our adventures since then soon...