Welcome to the World, Lucy Eliza Doyal!

Thanks to little Lucy, we've decided to finally enter the world of blogging! We love our little girl so much and so this is a great way to share her with the rest of her admirers! : ) I thought I'd rewind a bit and post some pregnancy pictures for all to see.

38 Weeks Pregnant



34 Weeks Pregnant at fun baby shower in Tyrone, with Dustin's cousins




31 Weeks Pregnant with the lovely ladies who hosted a fantastic baby shower in Atlanta

It's strange sometimes not to be pregnant anymore. About a week after Lucy was born, my stomach was growling and my first thought was that it was our baby moving around. As soon as I caught myself and looked in the bassinet next to our bed, I laughed out loud! How could I have so soon forgotten the labor and delivery process!? It is truly amazing how the memory of the pain vanished as soon as Lucy was born. For those of you that are interested, here's the run-down on that "process."

I woke up on Friday, October 9, 2009 and knew that I was in labor. Sure enough, it was the real deal. Everyone had kept telling me that I would just know when I was in labor. However, I had been skeptical throughout my pregnancy about that. In fact, I was trying to mentally prepare to have our baby in the bathtub at home and star in my own TLC reality series entitled "I Didn't Know I Was in Labor." Because of my paranoia about that, I actually went into the doctor on Thursday, October 8 because I had been having regular contractions throughout the day. Those contractions weren't really painful...just a little uncomfortable tightening of my stomach. The doctor on call checked me out on Thursday afternoon and sent me right home to wait it out. False Alarm! When I work up the next morning and was truly IN LABOR, I felt so ridiculous for having gone into the doctor the day before. It turns out that real contractions HURT!

I woke up at 8:15 and immediatedly knew this was the day! I stayed at home throughout the day and waited for the contractions to become more regular and close together. It was fairly relaxing and we were so glad to be able to stay at home as long as possible. My mom, dad, and sister came over in the morning...we had a nice time except that I was on the floor about every 15 minutes writhing in pain on the big silver exercise ball. I'm sure I was quite a sight! But at that point, the contractions were managable and far enough apart to allow me plenty of time to recover in between. About 4:00, Dustin and I decided to head to my doctor's office to get checked out to see how far I had progressed before we went to the hospital. Of course, we waited until Friday afternoon rush hour to decide to go in and I was so worried we would be stuck in traffic forever. Again, I imagined Dustin having to deliver our baby on the side of the interstate! But, traffic was amazingly light and we just breezed on into the doctor's office. The hard part was getting from the car to the doctor's office--we had to race to get in there between contractions so that I didn't embarrass myself by moaning and groaning in the parking garage or elevator! : ) I was about 2.5-3 cm dialated when we got to the doctor's office and she confirmed that I was in active labor. She sent us straight to the hospital to have our baby!!

Here's the timeline of labor once we got to the hospital, for all those who happen to be interested (all 2 of you!):

5:30 pm--Checked into Labor & Delivery and about 3 cm dialted

6:00-8:00--Furiously walked the halls of the hospital trying to get this show on the road
8:30--Dialated 6.5 cm and received my epidural!
8:45--My epidural kicked in and I was in sheer bliss...heaven on earth!
12:30 am--I was fully dialated and informed that it was time to push!
12:50--Everything's set, so I start the hard work of pushing out our little one!
2:35 a.m.--IT'S A GIRL!!! Our beautiful little Lucy Eliza entered the world!!