Caroline Lily Niebauer

Caroline Lily made her entrance into the world this morning at 5:14am. Quite the punctual child, she arrived on her due date, sharing her birthday with her dad, who said it was the best birthday present he could imagine. She weighed in at a whopping 9 pounds even and measured 20 inches. As you can see in the pictures, she has a full head of dark hair and quite the rosy complexion. She has big eyes and puffy cheeks just like her mom.

Labor wasn't as bad as I thought it might be. We started out at around 11pm with some moderate contractions, but I thought it might just be more practice rounds, like the ones which had kept me up most of the night before. But around 1am, the pain increased so dramatically I knew it had to be the real thing. So we started timing them, and they were roughly 7 minutes apart when we called the hospital and they told us to come in. Good thing we did, because by the car ride, they were 3 minutes apart and about the most painful thing I've ever felt. And every time Mike hit a pothole I would go into another one- ugh! Of course we got a bit lost on the way to the hospital- Mike got an earful for that!- but a nice taxi driver let us follow him and we made it ok.

When they did the exam right after we got to the hospital, I was already dilated to 7cm. Just in time to get my epidural- phew! Thank God for modern medicine. Once I got that, the contractions were much more manageable. We only waited about an hour, and then started to push. I pushed for about 40 minutes in all. Hard work, having a baby! I was exhausted. And even with the epidural, the final moments were definitely super painful. But all totally worth it!

We were excited and surprised to have a girl, when most everyone was convinced it was a boy. It was really fun finally knowing and not having to call her "it" anymore. She was quite the screamer when she came out, but mellowed out nicely.

We have a couple of days in the hospital now. My mom comes out tomorrow morning, which will be great- personal pediatrician on hand for 2 weeks. Mike's parents were in Europe, so a bit hard to get ahold of, but his mother was in tears when she learned the news- she's thrilled to have a granddaughter- breaking the 3 generation streak of only boys born in the Niebauer family!

Thanks to everyone for all the love you've sent our way. We're thrilled to have such a healthy, happy, beautiful little angel in our lives.