Welcome Ellie Pauahi Rowe!!

Sunday, May 27, 2007 ... After wishing Dave a safe flight yesterday, I felt really yucky (for lack of a better word). Thinking I was simply having "false labor" and having read that walking helps alleviate discomfort, I went to the mall to shop with some Origins gift cards my co-workers had generously purchased for me. All was well and good until a contraction hit me out of the blue and brought spontaneous tears to my eyes. Ouch. I got home, paged the on-call doctor and called my friend January telling her "I think I'm in labor." I was.

January picked me up at 6:00pm. We were at the hospital by 6:15 and she'd left a message for Dave who was en route to Memphis by 6:30. Imagine my surprise when the resident in the triage unit told me I was already at 4cm! Rachel arrived at about 7:30, just as I was being wheeled into the Labor/Delivery/Recovery (LDR) room. About a billion times of asking "can I have my epidural NOW?"; I got it! Aaaaah. Sweet sweet relief. The next several hours were fun girl time chatting with Rachel and January and trying to figure out how and when Dave would make it back.

Playing dress up with the baby

The gals and a "dressed" baby

Long story short (too late): Dave routed from Memphis to Minneapolis and then back to Detroit; arriving at 1:15am. Ellie made her debut at 3:34. Talk about timing! Since her gender had been a surprise to us, Dave made the exciting announcement "it's a beautiful baby girl!" He was also able to cut her umbilical cord. Here are some pictures of her first minutes of life.