So, she finally arrived! Please meet Isla Clayton.
She made us a family of four on Friday, April 16. Amazingly, weighing and measuring exactly the same as Avery did: 7 lbs, 10 oz and 19 inches long.

For as long as it seemed (for me) for her to make up her mind to join us, once she made that decision, it was a "done deal." In an effort to get Baby G moving, I spent Thursday evening sitting and moving around on an exercise/birthing ball (per the wonderfully-supportive and helpful instructs from Linda), but had no contractions, etc that night.

When I woke up Friday morning and began making breakfast for Avery, etc, contractions kicked in about every five minutes, and I thought - well, OK, here we go! Then they fizzled, jumping anywhere from seven to fifteen minutes apart. (This baby was toying with me, I thought!) Around eleven a.m, they ticked back up to every five minutes, and became tougher to talk through, so I felt certain we'd be heading up to Labor and Delivery. They maintained at five for an hour, then quickly progressed to being three minutes or less apart - all the while, Ben was fighting a bad rain storm, trying to get home!

We arrived at the hospital around 1:30 pm, and I was ready to push (see told you, she had DEFINITELY made up her mind!) - from the time I got into the hospital bed, to the time Isla was born was forty-five minutes. Fast and furious - whew!

I've you've had difficult births, you have my full blessing to hate me at this point. I am lucky, but if you've followed me through this pregnancy, you also know I was very involved, informed, and pro-active about wanting as natural a birth experience as I could have while still delivering in a hospital, and I communicated this to my obstetrician. I can't tell you how much it means to me to have had those wishes respected.
More importantly, Isla is perfect and healthy - we are truly blessed.

Some highlights of the day:

Not much sweeter than a Big Sister loving "her" new baby.

Or the beam of a proud, new Daddy

And kisses from Mims...

Some of our good friends from Brazil sent us these handmade lembrancinhas - a token of remembrance of a baby's birth to hand out to family and friends who visit the new baby. I can't send you each one, but please accept the virtual gift as a thank you for all your support in reading MLHP.