It's A....

Girl!!!

Our second daughter, Sylvia Hope was born Monday, March 5th. She shocked us all with her weight of 8 lbs. 14.5 oz.!! I guess she was really fattening up while waiting to make her appearance. :-) She measured 20.5" long. (She is the same length that Susannah was, but 1 1/2 lbs. bigger.)

We are so happy to finally have her on the outside where we can see her and hold her and love on her. Oh my, there is nothing more heart-capturing than a squirmy, snuggly, miracle-of-life baby that grew inside of me for 9 months!!! We are in love, plain and simple.

Thrilled to no end, enjoying some skin-to-skin with my daughter.

Labor was induced Monday morning and contractions started about 9:30am. After about 10 minutes of pushing (5 pushes in 4 contractions - yes, I was proud of that!) Sylvia was born at 1:13pm after a little under 4 hours of labor. I was already 5cm. when we got there (and had been for 2 weeks) so once things started, they went fast.

All showered and snuggled the first evening.

I felt so amazing and so much better as soon as she was born. I couldn't believe the difference! I think one of my first comments was "I can BREATHE again!!"

Susannah got to meet her little sister Tuesday morning.

I had packed a few books to be able to have some
"quality time" with Susannah when she came to visit.
Daniel is reading "I'm A Big Sister" to his 2 girls. :-)

We came home Wednesday shortly after noon. Aside from being a little tired from lack of sleep, I'm continuing to feel really good (and the pain meds help. ;-) ).

Sylvia ready to go home, wearing the same outfit
her big sister wore home from the hospital.

Susannah loves her baby sister, "Sigh-ee-uh", though we can't get her to say her name very much. She is very protective and wants to make sure Sylvia has her paci and blankie if she notices that they aren't with her.

Well, it will soon be lunchtime for everyone, so in wanting to get this posted already, I will have to save more for another post.