It's a girl!

Born at 9:27 a.m. on January 13th, 2009. 6 pounds 10 ounces. 19 inches long. Dark hair (but not much of it), grayish eyes. Pictures to come soon - but you get her birth story, because if there's one thing that is common among all women, it is that we LOVE to talk about our labors.
After a mere 4 hours of sleep interrupted by anxiety at being induced for the first time and a few somewhat painful contractions, Tim and I arrived at the hospital, as scheduled, at 6:00 a.m. I was dilated to a four. They inserted the IV and I became increasingly nervous that my limited mobility would affect my tolerance for pain, but I decided on a wait-and-see approach. They started me on Pitocin at 7:00, which appeared to do little to intensify my contractions, though they came more frequently. Doctor broke my water at 8:20 a.m. Things kicked into high gear, contractions became insanely intense within half an hour and I strongly considered getting an epidural, feeling very helpless in my hospital bed with a million gadgets attached to me. At 9:10 I decided that such intense pain probably meant the end was near and, since getting an epidural would take half an hour, figured that I might as well do without. My intuition was spot on. Eve was born just over 15 minutes later. My mom raced to the delivery room just in time for the final contraction and push (she'd been getting the kids off to their destinations for the morning). Tim saw that I was starting to lose it and knew that baby was coming any minute so he made a quick call to her as she pulled into the parking lot. I'm glad she was there - it made this final birth experience of mine very unique. Well, aside from the fact that I had to discover the gender for myself as they held her girl parts right in my face post-delivery.
What a blessing it is to bear and raise children. The love is instantaneous and overflowing. Quite literally a gift from above.