Then Along Came Teagan

She's here! It's only taken me about 2 weeks to get around to posting this, but I'm sure you can understand the delay.

So our due date was June 19th and exactly one week later on the 26th, Teagan Anne blessed us with her emergence into the world.

Here's a little about how it all went: I had begun feeling some contractions late Tuesday night, but nothing painful, just more regular and strong. We had an appointment at the hospital Wednesday morning where they did a non-stress test to make sure the baby was doing well. Everything looked great - my contractions were pretty regular - about 7 mins apart and lasting around a minute each. I was getting excited! And I finally got the ok to stop working. I had been working full-time up until then and was really ready to just focus on the birth and taking it easy (so to speak.)

Here is Mike and me at Taughannock Falls - two days before Teagan was born. Betsy had never seen the falls so we had to make a quick stop by them.

Mike and Betsy

So we continued through Wednesday with not much difference, and by the time we were going to bed, things were slowing down a little - the contractions were only about 10 mins apart.

Thursday was a great day though! The contractions sped back up to being 7 mins apart. Mike took the day off because we had a good feeling things were going to get moving that day. We had big plans. In the morning I was able to squeeze in to see an acupuncturist and she did some things to encourage labor to progress. Then we decided to get some spicy Thai food and then go for a hike at Robert H. Treman State Park. It was all we could do to encourage the baby to get a move on :)

Here I am - the day before Teagan was born, hiking up the steps at RHT.

But evening came and still no signs of things changing - just that our hopes were high and we were staying positive and REALLY HOPING that tomorrow would be the day. (Also - Michael Jackson died that day) sort of crazy!

Then, at 3:50am, lying asleep in bed, my water broke! What a crazy sensation! And by 4:30am, my contractions began to finally have some umph to them - I could really start feeling that they were changing and becoming more intense. We went back to bed and tried to sleep some more - as hard as that was. I actually did sleep a little longer, just waking up for every contraction.

By 8:00am I was ready to get up and get some things ready (let the final nesting comence!) We let Betsy know that my water had broken and it looked like we might have finally arrived to our birth day!

I didn't actually call the Dr. until around 11:30 because I knew they would probably have us go to the hospital right away. I had really wanted to stay home as long as possible. But by that point I was feeling ready to get there and wanted to be able to relax and not have to worry about traveling in the midst of active labor.

We got to the hospital around 12:00pm and settled in. But really only about an hour after getting there, things started to get much more intense. I won't go into much detail since a lot of it is kind of fuzzy to me. I didn't use any medication at all, which I'm proud of myself for. I actually feel like it really wasn't nesessary. It's so amazing what your hormones can do and how well they take care of smoothing the process over. I know it was strong, and at times very painful, but I can't imagine it any other way. And I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with using medication, just that for me, it was the way to go.

Both Mike and I's parents traveled up to be here for the birth - here they are, anxiously waiting down the hall.



Anyway, at 10:58pm, Teagan Anne was born! It was sooo amazing and incredible, I'm still in shock daily that she is here and is so perfect. She was completely healthy and weighed in at 8lbs. 10oz!

And then there were THREE! Here we are right after she was born. And I must say that it was a lot of fun not knowing if she was going to be a boy or a girl. It was funny because that was a big thought of mine through the whole labor, so when she was finally born I was waiting for someone to YELL it out right away! But everyone was just standing there watching her and I finally had to ask what it was. They asked me if I could see, so I looked down and then saw that it was a girl.

We didn't actually name her until Sunday morning. We had a huge list of both girl and boy names and wanted to wait to see her before picking a name. We both really are happy with the name and think that it's quite fitting :)

The proud family:

Auntie B

Gram & Grandpa

Grandma, Daddy, Grandpa & Auntie B

Proud Daddy

Proud Mommy

We stayed at the hospital for two nights. Ithaca is luckily small enough that most times their maternity ward isn't very full. So Mike was able to stay with us both nights in our room and even have his own bed. The hospital experience was wonderful and all the staff (doctors and nurses) were really sooo great! We really felt so lucky to have had such a great. all-around experience.

Just a cute picture of a very sleepy Teagan in her Dad's arms (and a silly wrap job :)

Three cheers for Teagan!! We did it!!