Tessa Elaine Maughan

She's here, and we couldn't be happier! I went into the doctor on Tuesday and was only dilated to a 1 and 1/2. Dr. Erickson said that his best day for whole next week was Wednesday, the next day! I was surprised to say the least. He sent me home and said they'd call with the time that I was supposed to be there by that afternoon. I proceeded to run around like a chicken with it's head cut off, for the remainder of the day. No call. By 8 pm we thought that meant they didn't have room for me the next day, so we went to bed thinking that we'd have the baby on Thursday. Cory got up and went to school and I (by some miracle) slept in till 7 am when I received a phone call from Labor and Delivery asking why I wasn't there! There was a miscommunication between the Dr.'s office and the hospital, so I didn't get a call. Anyways, I proceeded to frantically finish getting ready, find Emory's sitter, worry about my mom flying in, and try to get Cory to the hospital. Thanks to some amazing help from Laura and Parker Thompson, and my mom (who was flying in as I was being induced) everything settled into place.
We got to the hospital at 9 am, and they started my epidural at 11:30 am. At 12:00 pm, Dr. Erickson stripped my membranes and broke my water. They started me on the tiniest drip of pitocin and by 3:00 pm, I was still only at 3 cm! I started to get nervous that this was going to take all night, because I didn't want the doctor to be at the hospital for ever. (When your attempting a VBAC the doctor has to be in the hospital the whole time you're in labor!) Dr. Erickson stretched me a little and by 6:00 pm I was at 7 cm, and and hour later I was 9+! The doctor said he'd run out and get the stuff for Cory and him ready. As soon as he left, I felt like I had a bowling ball between my legs! With every contraction I thought she was half way out! He came back a 1/2 an hour later and we did some practice pushes. I pushed 2 times, and he turned to Cory with a look of surprise and said, "Let's get dressed!" I was thinking I'd have to push for a while, but I was wrong. Cory and the doctor got dressed and a few pushes later Tessa Elaine Maughan was born, delivered by Cory. One of the best parts of this whole amazing experience was holding her right after she was born! That was the ultimate for me. She was 7 lbs. 7 oz. and 21 inches long. She has dark hair and eyes (hooray!) and you could see her hair a good 20 minutes before she was even born! My mom got to be there, which was awesome! The whole thing was just amazing and a 180 degree difference from my last child bearing experience.
Emory is not sure about all this, but I think she's doing well. She didn't want to have much to do with me or Tessa at the hospital, but since we've been home, she's wanted to help and hold etc. They look like complete opposites though, Tessa's dark and Emory's fair! We'll put up a super cute video of Em holding her in the next day or two, and some pictures from the hospital and delivery too! So, keep checkin' in on us!