Olivia's first pictures

Taken by my friend Amanda, of Amanda Anderson Photography!

It's really a girl!

The doctor wasn't certain, but I felt all along that it was a girl. Thankfully I was right, since I got a boatload of girl stuff at my shower! Olivia Jennifer Weighall was born Monday, March 9 at 7 in the morning, weighing in at 9 lbs. 3 oz! I'm still getting used to the idea that I actually have a daughter. I've been in boy-land for so long that it's definitely an adjustment. Diapering is different, and a lot of other things are different so far as well. A big one is the fact that she will sleep without being held, and be awake without crying! We've had our share of sleepless nights but it's night and day (pardon the pun) compared to my boys!

Labor and delivery-- I was hoping all along that I would deliver early, and I wish it could have happened that way. Four days after my due date I finally went into labor. My contractions started about 10pm Sunday evening, but because this had already happened several times I told Mark we should wait a while to make sure I was really in labor before we had to get someone out of bed to come over and watch our kids. As a result, by the time we got to the hospital (about 1am), I was already dilated to an 8 and contracting really hard. That's a mistake I won't make again! After pushing for an hour or so (I think), the Dr. said that the baby wasn't moving and if we hadn't made any progress by 6am we would have to consider an alternate method of delivery. The baby's heartrate also started to drop every time I had a contraction, and as it turned out the placenta was pushed up against her head. When she was finally born and weighted at 7:10am, the Dr. said it was unlikely I would have been able to push her out. I wasn't very happy about the C-section, but she was born healthy and that's what is important. We are so happy to have our baby girl!