Saturday February 24, 2001

Finally here… Well, the little one has finally arrived! We went into the hospital around 11:00 p.m. on Monday (2/19/01) to try and get some rest before the big action! The next morning, the doctor came in around 8:30 a.m. and broke my water. By 10:00 a.m. (now at 4 centimeters dilation) I was begging for the epidural!! After about an hour and a half of hard labor and saying "when is that guy gonna get in here", the epidural was finally in place and I was in a nice comfortable semi-coma! We sent John to get himself some food as he needed to be strong for the events to come. My parents and long time friend/second mom Bobbi Meng sat with me while he was gone. John arrived back to the room around 12:15 p.m. or so and the doctor came to check me at about 12:30 p.m. We kicked my parents out at this time and sent them to the cafeteria. Little did they know I was at full 10 centimeters dilation and ready to push! We began pushing about 10 minutes later. John and my doctor were fantastic coaches and fifty minutes later, out came little Ashley Ann. My parents happened to return from lunch right at that time, opened the door just a tiny bit and surprisingly heard her first cry! The doctor put her right up on my chest so I could see her while John cut the umbilical cord. It was a beautiful moment… We were so blessed with such a smooth delivery and perfectly healthy baby girl. She weighed 7 lbs. and 12 ounces and is 21 inches long. We brought her home on Thursday (2/22/01) and have been enjoying her ever since! She is on a great feeding schedule already and her favorite activities are eating, sleeping, pooping, sucking on anything she can, and making cute faces! She seems to have a little shift in her nights and days (not fully mixed-up, thank goodness!), which we hope to get corrected very quickly! Otherwise the three of us are doing wonderfully! Thanks so much for all of the calls and emails offering your support and good wishes. It has been a wonderful experience bringing her into the world and we are so grateful to have her in our lives and to share her with all of you.