Introducing Little Miss Virginia Battaglia

She's here. She's really, really here. It is almost too much to believe. She's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen, I may be biased, but it's true.

Yesterday was amazing. I mean, it was hard... But as I look back it really was an amazing experience.

Words seem so meaningless at this time. I wish that I could express how perfect my husband was yesterday. He was with me every minute and talked me through every contraction.

Let's see... we got here Sunday night per Dr.'s orders. They started me on some inductions agents. By Monday night I could tell things were moving along.

Wednesday morning my contractions woke me up around 4am. Jason was sound asleep so I did some breathing and walking around on my own for a little bit. By 4:30 I woke up him up and told him I needed his help :) He got up and helped me into the rocking chair, about five minutes into rocking my water broke - really broke.

Since my water broke and my contractions weren't progressing, my Dr. wanted to start me on Pitocin. That got my contractions moving along and coming at a more regular pace. They were still manageable at this point. We did our breathing and Jason talked me through them. We did some walking and rocking. The room was very peaceful and calm. We had the lights down and music playing...

By about 2:30 or 4 my contractions were coming closer and harder and lasting longer. The Pitocin had been steadily increased and it was making my contractions pretty sharp. They were making me sick :/ It was at this point I told Jason I needed something to help the pain. They put me on some morphine to help me relax. It definitely relaxed me. I was practically falling asleep between contractions. But my contractions were getting closer, harder, and longer.

My nurse checked me and I was dilated to 5. My blood pressure was also up and had been for a while. At this point having to lay in the bed and breath through contractions was getting to be too much. Especially not knowing how long it would take to get to 10 from my current 5. I asked for the epidural.

I got the epidural around 4 and it didn't start working until 5. That was the hardest hour...

But once that epidural kicked in I was one happy camper. I still had the morphine so I was a sleepy happy camper. Jason's favorite part of the labor experience was when I was buried in blankets and he was feeding me and I kept falling asleep in between bites :)

I could see the contractions on the monitor but I wasn't feeling them any more and I was so glad! They were closer and looked liked bad ones :)

I think it was around 7pm or so and they decided to check me to see where I was at. The nurse came in and low and behold, I was a full ten and the baby's head was sitting there waiting to come out.

They got the Dr. there pretty quick and we started pushing at 7:55pm. And at precisely 8:12 our baby girl entered the world.

There's nothing quite like it... Seeing her and holding her for the first time was wonderful and so fulfilling.

All our nurses were amazing and everyone here is so kind and helpful.

Thank you all for caring and wanting to hear our updates and for all your prayers! Our little family is so grateful for all of you and can't wait for you to have the opportunity to meet our precious little bundle.

Love to all!!