It's a girl!!

Meet... Sofia Mercedes. She was born 2 weeks early on Sunday, May 22, 2011 at 8:48 am- 7 lbs 3oz and 20 inches long. It was an incredible birth and really we couldn't have asked for anything better.

Here's the story of her birth... Saturday was a busy day for me of walking around at a street fest in the city with a wonderful college friend, Jessie (and Katie Gross) and watching Bridesmaids with the girls (trying not to laugh too hard in order to prevent a pee break and Mara leaning over to check that I wasn't going into labor!). Andy spent the day at a camera class we got through a Groupon that taught him the basics of how to use our new SLR camera that we got for Christmas from the Collados in preparation for our new baby (for faster and clearer pictures).  That night we were exhausted so we ordered in (which took forever as I tried to find a Thai place that had both bubble tea and mango sticky rice-surprisingly harder than I thought). We then put on a movie and I spent most of the movie running to the bathroom and having Andy time my suspected contractions. I haven't had many Braxton Hicks so we weren't sure if this needed to be done. But for an hour we found the contractions to be lasting a minute and longer and 5-8 minutes apart. We were shocked and called our midwife at midnight to give her a heads up. Her advice was try to rest and let her know if they get closer and more intense. Rest was not easy! Andy went to bed with the hopes of getting some sleep in prep for helping me during labor. The contractions actually sped up quickly and before I realized it, my contractions were 3 minutes apart from 1:30-2:30am. At 3am I went to the bathroom when my water broke (luckily in the toilet!). I woke Andy up, called the midwife and decided it was time to go to the hospital as I began to cry with some contractions. The car ride was the longest ride ever and I was apparently obviously close to having a baby as many nurses made such comments as I walked through the womens hospital (per Andy's memory as I spent those hours with my eyes mostly closed and mute- except for the moaning and grunting). Mike and Pat arrived at about 5:30am I think and Pat was there with Andy and I throughout the labor and delivery. I labored in the tub, standing against the wall, leaning over the sink (with Andy preventing my head from hitting the faucet). I pushed for two hours (not believing I was getting anywhere) with Andy coaching me and supporting me the whole time! Sofia shot out like Super Woman with her right hand by her face and both Andy and I cried as she was held up butt showing to me. They asked what she was, and Andy said I said, "there's balls". They laughed, turned her around and showed me there were no boy bits and announced she was a girl! So exciting and both Andy I cried (the picture below is priceless)! It was pretty uneventful (only 12 hours long) and a beautiful birth that we are so happy for. She is absolutely amazing and somehow everything she does is adorable and worth commenting on. Here's some pictures, we've posted more on our Picasa page.

The proud dad and grandparents!

This is my favorite shot of us right after Sofia was born- I'm whimpering and Andy's face is pure joy. Wow the actual moment she was born and we saw her for the first time was amazing.

Being weighed at 7lbs 3oz.

First bath... they even had to comb her hair!

Thank you everyone for your congrats and love! It's been amazing!