Our little angel is born!

We were thrilled to welcome our baby girl to the world this week. This is the story of how she made her first appearance...

Reese Elizabeth Allen was due on Wednesday, August 24, 2011. We chose to be induced on Tuesday, August 23rd because we were already basically at 40 weeks into the pregnancy so we knew the baby was ready, and our doctor was going on an extended vacation the following weekend. To top it off, it had been 100 degrees+ for pretty much the entire summer, so I was just feeling hot and uncomfortable and ready to get this show on the road!

Monday was my last day at the office prior to starting maternity leave. All of my coworkers kept asking me what I was doing there (instead of relaxing at home), but I was so excited and felt very ready so it was the best place to be to help pass the time until Reese's arrival.

I left early and arrived home a little after 5 PM. At 7 PM, I felt my first contraction. It was much stronger and more painful than anything else I'd felt during pregnancy, so I knew it could be the real deal. The contractions started 9-11 minutes apart, but came regularly. Dana was working late getting things wrapped up (since we were expecting to have a baby the next morning) so I called him just to give him a heads up, but told him not to worry since they were still far apart.

Much to my surprise, just an hour later they were coming every 5 minutes. Since they tell you that you should go to the hospital once they are 5 minutes apart consistently for an hour, I called Dana and told him to come home and grab some fast food on the way (he had initially planned on a cooking a nice dinner for us, but I had a feeling we were going to be on our way to the hospital shortly).

Dana got home at 8:30... just in time to take a quick shower and get us to the hospital by 9. By 9 o'clock my contractions ranged from 4-6 minutes apart. Luckily, we live 2 minutes from Baylor Frisco, which is a wonderful place to deliver a baby (it's basically the country club of maternity wards!)

When we arrived I was 4 cm dilated and in a lot of pain. The contractions, while they didn't last long, were pretty horrible. Dana kept trying to distract me from them with random questions (Where should we go for Spring Break? If you had a pet dolphin, what would you name it?).

Thankfully, I was able to get rushed right into a delivery room, and I had an epidural by 10 pm. After that, everything became blissful. I couldn't feel a thing besides very tingly legs and toes. We darkened the delivery room, set up LED-lit, vanilla scented candles and played Sarah McLaughlin music to help me relax. I honestly felt like I was at the spa. I was so happy we'd thought ahead to pack these things!

Our nurse, Allison, was INCREDIBLE. She coached us almost the whole way there and she was such a cheerleader. At the end, they gave me a little Potosin because Reese wouldn't drop low enough. I pushed for 20-30 minutes and my doctor, Dr. Fleming, arrived when I was about to cross the finish line.

Reese was born at 2:32 AM. I was happy but unfortunately very nauseous... quite possibly because I succumbed to having a Chic-Fil-A milkshake to make me feel better during contractions, and you're not supposed to eat before labor. Anyhow, I did eventually throw up (not fun) but then I felt much better and was able to fully welcome our darling to the world!

We were at the hospital from Monday PM to Thursday at 11 AM. The staff took incredible care of us, and the food was delicious! (They have a 5-star chef on staff)

We fell more in love with Reese every day, and when the time came for us to leave, we felt very ready to start our new life together as a family of 3.