Thanks to everyone for their well wishes! Little Renee came home from the hospital today. She’s been good, today was a very fussy day for her but my milk isn’t yet in and she’s just drinking up that colostrum. Hopefully tomorrow things will change. She is really precious though. The cats are a little freaked out but their kind of just in awe of her.

It was a very long labor–contractions started Sunday at 1: 30 a.m. and they were intense. They never were timed regularly apart. I went in to the hospital twice on Sunday and they said I was only 1 cm dilated, my water hadn’t broken yet. They tried to give me something for the pain but it didn’t work at all. I was basically on my knees in agony all Sun. night. Mon morning I went back and the ob-gyn broke my water, she thought I’d probably deliver the baby Mon. early evening at the latest. Well the labor went on forever and it was just terrible. Chris was a total trooper and an excellent coach. We managed pretty well the first few hours with hypnobirthing, but I was not progressing at all. I really wanted to do it without drugs, but at 11:30 that evening, I had been in over 40 hours of labor and I just could not go on. The midwife, who usually doesn’t suggest drugs, really thought in my case and epidural would help me rest a little and relax enough to let things progress. So I finally got one, and things progressed fairly well. Renee was FINALLY delivered at 5:13 the next morning (I had been in labor 53 hours)! They had to do an episiotomy but it’s healing pretty well.

The hospital staff and nurses were AWESOME. So supportive, so helpful, so family oriented! And the midwife who deilvered Renee was exactly the one we wanted. I wish my labor had been easier, but things all fell into place and this little girl is totally worth it.

Will try to update more later, gotta go cause she’s waking up!