Everyone probably knows by now (via Facebook) that our daughter was born last Sunday. Today she is a week old. This first week at home has gone by so fast. I can't believe she is a week old already. I think I am officially a baby person now. =) I was so concerned that I really wouldn't like her that much since I wasn't that big on babies. But everyone is correct. You fall in love with your baby right away, and even go so far as to not want them to get older yet! As I face she is a week old and already past her birth weight (7lb 7oz) at 8 lbs, she is growing up too fast.  The delivery I thought went quickly. Dan and I had walked all the floors of the Mall of America, went jeeping, had sex, and ate pineapple the day I went into labor. (We were really wanting to have her in November as the 30th was the last day of my insurance--God answered that prayer.) I started have real contractions about 10:00pm on Saturday night. At 10:30 I started to time them. They were three minutes apart and lasted for about 45 seconds. They continued to be two to three minutes apart for the rest of labor. Finally at 12:30am I called the baby line and they told me to come into the hospital. We got to Abbott Northwestern around 2:30am. When I got there I was at a four. I wanted to try to have a natural birth without any medications, so I didn't take any pain killers. The only thing that I was open to was an epidural, but I wanted to see how far I could get before I did that. Well, finally at 6:00am I couldn't take the pain anymore and asked for an epidural. They hooked me up to an IV and called the anethesiologist. Around 6:45ish (before the anethesiologist got there), the midwife came in and checked me. I was at a nine, so she broke my water and that made me completely dilated. Then it was time to push. I briefly remember the epidural guy walking in when I was pushing, but of course by then it was too late for that. I pushed for about 15 minutes (through four contractions), and she was out! For me the worst part was pushing since it had to be done during a contraction. When Dan finally said, "I see the top of her head!" I got a burst of energy to make it through the last bits of pushing. So, I don't know if I want to go through all of that again any time soon, but I can say it was totally worth it. I love my little Jeselyn. Kisses!  | 
