Welcome to the world, Brielle!

Our baby girl is here! And I have to say, my labor with her was a lot better than Perrin's. (THANK YOU, Brielle! No 56-hour ordeal this time!) I woke up around midnight Thursday night/Friday morning feeling a lot of pressure, like she had dropped even further down. At about 12:30 AM, my water broke (seems like these things always happen in the middle of the night. What's with that?) So we called my parents to have them come stay at our house with Perrin, and we headed to the hospital. With a little help from pitocin to get my contractions going a little stronger and closer together, she was born about 12 hours later at 12:49 PM. Even the pushing phase was much easier this time around--I pushed through three contractions,and she was out in less than five minutes. Once the doctors and nurses did the initial weight check/APGAR/clean-up, they all cleared out and left us to bond with our sweet little girl. She snuggled down in my arms and even nursed a little before falling asleep.

I was really excited to introduce Perrin to Brielle, but wasn't too sure what he would think. At best, I hoped he'd be mildly interested but mostly indifferent. At worst, I was afraid he'd be jealous or not like her for some reason. It turns out that he is the sweetest big brother I could have imagined! He petted her head and held her hand and asked if she wanted to play choo-choo trains with him. Then he sat beside me in the hospital bed and held her across his lap. So far, so good! I hope he keeps his sweet nature when he realizes he has to share his mommy with her from now on.

We're back home now, and so far Brielle just seems to sleep and sleep and sleep. Not that I'm complaining... but unfortunately, she wants to do all of her sleeping in someone's arms, which is fine during the day but not so cute at 3:00 in the morning. Oh well... sleep deprivation is part of the package of parenthood. Besides, it's hard to get upset with someone this cute: