Sophia is here

Finally, we were able to meet our little girl last Monday, August 8 at 5:57 p.m.! It all started last Monday around 3:30 a.m., I woke up with cramps and went to the bathroom only to find that I was bleeding. I freaked out, woke Elliott up and told him to get the paper that said when to go to the hospital. Sure enough it said to go to the hospital. Instead of calling my mom or sister, we packed our bags, got in the car, then made the calls. I didn't want anyone to talk me out of going to the hospital. El and I both had a feeling this was it. So we got to Riverside, went to Labor & Delivery, got checked in and told them what happened. First, they needed to see if my water broke which I thought it had but wasn't too sure. The test came back positive right away so we knew then that it was the night. We were both super excited and nervous. At this point both sets of our parents were on their way and my sister was on her way as well.

When we got to the hospital they checked me and I was between 4 and 5 cm's dilated and 80% effaced. We didn't think it would take too long since I was half way there, however, that wasn't the case. After my family got to the hospital the nurse tried acouple things to speed up the process. I walked around, sat on the ball but I wasn't progressing very fast. Hours went by and I was between 5 and 6. The nurse asked if I wanted the epidural and I said "yes." Finally, around 4 p.m. the nurse said we should probably start pushing because my doctor was only on call until 5 p.m. and she knew how much I wanted Dr. Cacchio there. So I started pushing around 4:2o and had our baby girl at 5:57p.m. My mom and Elliott were the only two people in the room besides Dr. Cacchio and our amazing nurse. I couldn't have asked for a better team. My mom and Elliott were soo supportive. I never thought i'd be able to go through all the pain, however, it wasn't bad thanks to the epidural. Once my baby girl was here I was so excited. Elliott didn't pass out so we were excited about that as well.

We couldn't wait to see if Sophia had any hair and after she was finally here....we saw that she had some. They ran the tests on Sophia and she got 9 out of 1o's on everything. My doctor said nobody ever gets 10's so we were happy. Then they weighed Sophia and she came in at 7 pounds 8.4 ounces and was 19 inches long. We weren't expecting her to be that big. She was adorable and a gift from God. We are soo blessed to have her and couldn't have asked for anything more. Here's acouple pictures from the hospital:

The first night in the hospital went well. We were both exhausted from the long day and no sleep. I couldnt wait until the next day to shower. I was super swollen and didn't look like myself until the next day when they stopped pumping me with fluids due to my fever. I'm still to this day (almost a week later) a bit swollen but mostly it has gone away.

Wednesday were were released to go home. We were both nervous but also excited. The first task was getting Sophia in the car seat and base....we couldn't figure out how to tighten her straps but finally got it. :) That night was rough....the dogs didn't do well with their new sister. Maya barked every time Sophia cried or made a sound. Sophia was up every 40 minutes. Luckily my mom came the next day and really helped us out. Since then, Sophia has been sleeping better and the dogs are getting more used to her. Here's a picture of Sophie's car ride home: