Welcome to the world!

I'm still catching up from the busy summer we had, but I have to interrupt writing about Duke's birthday celebrations to write about another very special birthday.

Annalisa Hope was born two days ago at 1:55pm after a looooooong 32 hour labor for Larissa. The labor itself went very well, no problems...it was just slow and long.

Around 5:30 in the morning on the 17th La noticed that she was having faint, regular contractions. They continued to come regularly and as the day wore on they picked up in intensity.

By 7pm they were coming every 3-4 minutes and they left for the hospital. I quickly joined them there...expecting to come home in the middle of the night of course.

But by 6am the morning of the 18th, La was only at 6cm...and by 8am, still only at 7cm. Larissa was a champ, because it was only at that point (after 26 hrs!) that she got an epidural. I'm so glad she did because it was another 6 hours before Annalisa was born.

I temporarily left at 9am just to quickly run home to nurse Duke. I was back within the hour and things continued to progress...slowly...and around 11:30am La began pushing...and then finally, just before 2pm, Annalisa made her appearance! We were so happy to see her! All 8lbs and 3oz of her.

Despite the odd look somehow captured on my face, I was so delighted to see her! After all, I'd been up ALL NIGHT waiting for her.

Welcome to the world little niece and cousin!