Baby Alexia is here!!!!!!!!!!!

We have been blessed with the arrival of our beautiful baby girl! Alexia was born on Sunday, November 11th at 11:44am. She weighed 7lbs and 13oz and measured 20+ inches.

I started having contractions on Saturday morning and knew it would be the big day, but that we had a while to go. We took Diego to the zoo and came home for a nap in the afternoon. When I woke up from our nap around 4pm, the contractions were more painful and were every 6-7 minutes. I was still comfortable and wasn't bothered by the pain so we carried on with dinner, etc. I layed down around 9:30 and was able to sleep for about an hour before I woke up feeling like things were moving along more quickly. At midnight we decided to head to the hospital. On our way there, I got cold feet and said, "let's pull into the mall parking lot and walk around a bit before going to the hospital." So, we walked around the mall (at midnight!) for about 20 minutes and I felt ready so we were back on our way. The short version of our time at the hospital is that they checked me and I was only 1cm dilated, they declared I was in "false labor" and sent us home. The nurse said "Girl, you come back when you're screaming in pain and can't talk through contractions." So...back home we went. It was around 2:30am when we got home and we tried to lay down, but I could not sleep. By 4:00am, I was in a lot of pain and was having a hard time talking during the contractions. At 6:00am I took a bath and was in extreme pain. At 7:30 we decided it was time to return to the hospital and knew we would be meeting our baby girl in a few hours. My water broke in the car, which we were very thankful for since that got things progressing even quicker. We checked in at 8:00am and I was 4cm dilated. I got the epidural at 9:00am and by 10:00am I was 8cm dilated. At 11:30 I started pushing and she was born at 11:44am!!!!!!!!!!!! It is exhilarating to experience the miracle of life and feel so close to God's creation. She was absolutely perfect and Ricardo and I were in awe. The hospital was backed up with a lot of births so we were left alone in the delivery room for almost 2 hours after she was born and it was such a special time. She nursed for almost an hour and we just reveled in the excitement of having a daughter!

Diego came to meet her in the afternoon and didn't enjoy his hospital visit. He was very concerned to see me in a hospital gown with tubes and band aids on my arm. He didn't want to sit in bed with me or even give me a kiss. Papi took him home after a short while because he wasn't happy at all. Ricardo's mom was here to take care of Diego the whole time we were at the hospital which was such a blessing.

Alexia and I were discharged from the hospital yesterday (Monday) afternoon and arrived home around 5:00pm. Diego was ECSTATIC to see me and would constantly look up at me and say "Mami! Mami!" He has been an absolute treasure and has accepted his sister with so much affection and excitement. We are a very proud family of FOUR!