Hope Anneliese Driesenga

Our daughter was born on Wednesday, September 15 at 10:12pm. She weighed in at 8lbs 12oz and 21 1/2 inches long. She has a head full of dark wavy hair. For some reason I can't upload pics, so those might have to wait until we're home. Or go check out Marc's facebook.

Around 6:00pm on Wednesday (to follow up my last post) the doc came in and said I had progressed and we would maybe start pitocin soon. As we were standing there talking about what was next, my water broke on it's own! Wow - I am so glad that happened in the hospital and not while walking around Meijer or something like that! Anyhow, my contractions got a lot more intense and regular - about every 2 minutes and lasted for 60-70 seconds each. They watched my contractions and decided I didn't need pitocin at all! I was SO relieved at that. I had been dreading pitocin and had actually been praying my entire pregnancy that I wouldn't need it. God answered...a bit late in the game...but he answered!

I finally gave in and got an epidural around 7:30/7:45pm. Marc told me later that he was surprised I gave in at that point because he felt I was doing so well and dealing well with the contractions. As much as I would like to have gone without, I am glad for the availability of pain meds and happy with my decision to get an epidural.

We called our family and many of them came up around 9 or 9:30pm. We thought that maybe we'd have a baby by midnight, so we didn't tell them to rush at all. I was fully dilated before most of them got there, but my doc wanted me to labor down (allow her head to come down more) a bit before pushing. When my family was in the room, one of them asked me how dilated I was and I told them I'm ready to go & feel like this child could almost fall out. So, with that, they all left the room, the nurse came in and about 5 mintues later I was pushing. It took maybe 10 minutes and 4 contractions and Hope Anneliese was here!

I cannot believe what a difference this experience has been than with Isaac. I am in a better place both physically and emotionally this time and feel so blessed with her arrival.

So far, we think she looks a bit like me - round face, dark & wavy hair (which was me when I was born) but she's just over 24 hours old right now.

Thanks to everyone for your prayers & encouragement as we've been waiting.

I'll get lots of pictures up when we get home and I have my own computer!