Welcome to the world, Vivien Leigh!

Vivi Leigh made her appearance at 1:49 pm, Monday, January 25, 2010.

She weighed 9 pounds, 8 ounces and measured 20.5 inches long.

She is one chubby, cuddly little bundle of sweetness and we are in love with her already!

This morning, I woke up with a lot of back pain around 3:00. After getting up several times, I finally got in the shower around 4:30 to see if the hot water could bring some relief. When Dennis's alarm went off at 5:30, I told him that I thought he might need to take me to the doctor. I so didn't want to "cry wolf" so we just called a few people and told them that I might be in labor. Between 5:30 and 7:00, we ran around the house trying to take care of all of the things that have been on hold until Vivien's arrival. At 7:00, we loaded a very clueless Amity and all of our things in the car and drove to our sitter's house.

As we drove, my contractions started coming in regular 5 minute increments but I mainly felt them in my back. We arrived at Baylor L&D around 8:15 and they sent me to triage for observation. The nurse told me to tell her when I felt a contraction. She put her hands on my stomach and said, "I can feel a little palpitation." What???? While I am nothing like my friends and cousins that have done this whole thing naturally, I don't think I am a total wimp! She did say, "It doesn't mean you aren't in pain. I just think you are in early labor." She called the doctor and was told to have me walk for 30 minutes. We headed back across the hall to L&D and walked for 30 minutes. The whole time I kept thinking about how much I would cry if they sent us home because if this wasn't labor, I didn't want to know what labor felt like!


We returned to observation at 9:30 and, THANK YOU, LORD!, I had a strong contraction that she could feel right as she came in the room. She checked me and determined that I had made some progress and called the doctor who agreed that I could be admitted.

We moved over to L&D around 10:00 and they started me on an IV. Around 10:45, Dr. Crochet came to break my water. Very soon after, the beloved anesthesiologist showed up to administer my epidural. Within minutes, I was a different person and started enjoying my sweet husband's humor again...such as when he told my parents that the third doctor in the practice, Dr. Fields-Walker, would be the one delivering the baby. He said that he thought she was American-Indian. The phone connection wasn't super clear and my parents believed him!

For the next two hours, I napped and played Scrabble on the iphone with Dennis and my brother. Dennis went to get some lunch and continued sending text updates to family and friends at work. Just before 1:00, we encouraged the nurse to check me and she was surprised to find I was complete! She called the doctor and she said, "Don't laugh too hard! You might push her out!" Since there had been some meconium in the amniotic fluid, there were some extra nurses in the room to ensure there was nothing in Vivien's lungs. The room filled with people, I lost all sense of modesty, and Vivien was out with just a few pushes at 1:49 p.m. As soon as she was out, everyone was talking about how big she looked. Dennis watched the nurses get her clean while the doctors finished with me. Very soon, she was in our arms. She started off very quiet but soon began showing us how strong her lungs were. She ate a good first meal and then quieted down for a nap by sucking on my finger and her knuckles. Then Dennis brought me Chik-fil-a and it tasted SO good!

I had to stay in L&D for a little extra time to make sure that I was not bleeding too much and we enjoyed the time to bond with our newest little girl.

Around 5:00, we arrived upstairs to the newly renovated Baylor rooms (nice!) and settled in before welcoming family. Becky and Dylan picked up Amity at Ms. Etta's house and arrived with the kids shortly after GG and KK. We had been concerned what Amity would think when she arrived at the hospital and saw us holding another baby but Vivien was in the nursery for some tests and Amity didn't even seem to notice us as soon as she locked eyes on GG and KK.

Baby Vivien soon arrived and got lots of hugs and attention, especially from her big sister and her cousins. This is the sweet picture of her as she said "night, night" before heading home with GG and KK.

We will post more pictures of our day later but, for now, we are going to watch "24" and try to get some rest! What a heavenly day!