Introducing little Gracie...

Sorry for being delayed with the photos and details, but little Gracie is here safe and sound!

Last Saturday was Kate's birthday and I started having more significant contractions than I had been experiencing. Really I just wanted to make it to the 28th, so that they could have different birthdays. That night I was up a lot with contractions and had them off and on throughout the next morning and afternoon. At the prodding of some persuasive friends I called my Doc (Dr Cohen--love her!) and asked if she was going to be at the hospital if I could have her strip my membranes to speed things up (she had offered to do this before and I knew that she was on call). Well, to my surprise she said, "Why don't we just head down there now, I'll break your water and we'll have a baby tonight?" "Uh, okay", I said. Beth and Shae had taken our kids to their home for the night and off we went. Basically, they checked me (I was at a 3 and 50%), got me in a room, I had my epidural, Dr Cohen came in, broke my water and two hours later I was ready to push. Seriously, this was the most surreal, laid back birthing experience yet. IT WAS AWESOME. We did have a little hiccup in that a respiratory therapist had to be on hand because they thought that Gracie had possibly swallowed some of the miconium, but it ended up being a false alarm...whew!
So, at 12:23 a.m. on June 29th our beautiful dark haired baby entered the world. She weighed 7 lbs. 4 oz. and looks A LOT like her handsome daddy's family. After much discussion we finally settled on the name Grace (Gracie) Jeanne. Owen still refuses to call her anything but "Annie" (from The Magic Treehouse books) and Davis thought we should have named her "Bergert" ("It is totally a girl name and means 'baby' in Spanish," he says.), but we'll see how long that lasts. Kate thinks she is the best toy we have ever gotten her and Davis is fascinated with letting us know when "It is AWAKE! Oh, how cute! Our new baby is awake."

We'll keep you posted on our life with little Gracie...