Dylan-Roo has arrived!!!

Chad & I are proud to announce the much anticipated arrival of Miss Dylan Stevelt-Mitchell! She was born on September 27, 2011 at 6:11 pm, weighing 7 pounds 2 ounces and measuring 19.25 inches long. (Also, her noggin is 14 inches in circumference - but I don't feel like that's a statistic I hear much of so I have little for comparison...) She is absolutely perfect in every way, in our eyes :), and we are more in love & happier than words can describe.

A few hours old - I don't ever want to let her out of my arms!

A Stevelt-Mitchell Totem Pole - Dylan, 1/2 a day old.

Dylan's first time in her car seat - on the van ride home from the hospital! 9/28/11 - so happy to get to be headed home from the hospital so soon! She's just over 24 hours old.

And we're home! Dylan's first time in her Pack n' Play, snug as a Roo in a rug.

Spending quality time snuggled on Daddy's shoulder. Chadmo is such a wonderful husband & daddy - Dylan, Haley, & I are lucky girls. <3

Dylan all wrapped in a towel after her first sponge bath at home. I've never had a baby with hair to wash before! She was very good for her bath, and only protested a little bit.

It's hard to believe that a week ago we were making plans to be induced to have Dylan today, Monday October 3rd! Apparently reverse psychology works well on babies, because she must have decided she wasn't going to let us choose when she was going to make her big arrival, and decided to come the day after we made our 'plans'. :) Last Monday night I was pretty uncomfortable all night (imagine feeling like wild horses were dragging your hips in opposite directions...), but really wasn't having any more contractions than usual. The next morning I woke up at 9 am to pretty strong contractions that were consistently 10 minutes apart. After about an hour and a half of that, I decided we better head up to the hospital. Dad & Mom both managed to get out of work lickety split, and we all rode up together to Labor & Delivery at Riverside Hospital, arriving at noon. Chadmo also left work promptly, so he arrived about 1/2 an hour behind us since he had to come all the way from Athens.

The nurse in L&D decided to check me right away since I delivered Haley so quickly, and sure enough I was dilated to 5-6 cm. (I'd been at 4 cm for the past 3 weeks.) So we were officially checked in and knew that Miss Dylan would be arriving sometime that day! My labor from noon to 3 o'clock consisted of contractions about every 4 minutes apart that I didn't want to talk through, but that were mild enough that Chadmo, Mom, Dad, & I were playing Crazy 8's and I was sitting on the yoga ball. At 3 pm they started getting strong enough I decided I'd rather be sitting up in bed, and standing through contractions was very uncomfortable. Lamaze breathing & pirate novel birthing techniques were my saving grace through this time period. (Pirate technique: have someone squeeze your hand super hard through your contractions, that way you have something else to think about! It actually helped a lot, till about 8-9 cm anyway!) I did have one dose of nubane around 7 cm, and it helped take the edge off for about an hour and give me the boost I needed to get through the rest of the delivery.

When I was 8-9 cm, which was around 5:40 pm, we decided to go ahead and break my water to speed things up. Dr. Copeland left his office at 5:30, his office is about 15 minutes from the hospital, and he warned them not to break my water for 10 minutes or he was afraid he'd miss it. His warning was well founded, because I was immediately in excruciating labor and after about 2-3 more contractions I wanted to push. I wasn't allowed to for a couple contractions after that, but when I finally was - it was ~2 contractions worth of pushing and Dylan was here!

She fussed for about 2 hours after she was born, and earned herself the nickname Crab Cake -which has been totally unfounded since then, but I still find too cute to let go. :) Ever since then, she has been an incredibly pleasant and laid back baby who just seems to go with the flow and be a lovely little snuggle-pot. We can't get enough of her! In fact sometimes I find myself thinking, "I should go to bed, but she's too cute - I don't want to lay her down!" We are thoroughly enjoying how happy & easy-going she is, but also trying not to count on it lasting! We're keeping our fingers crossed though. :)

We've had lots and lots of visitors: Grandma, Grandpoppy, Aunt Kelly, Mimi, Katy, Greg, & Kamil Cak all made it to the hospital, and almost all of them have been to our house since then too! Christy Walker, Great Grandmom Stevelt, Soon-to-be Uncle Jesse, Susie & Fred Klingelhafer, Tom & Jess Steinbrink, Kathy Crisler, and Heather, Greg, & Greta Dickerson have all been to visit since we've been home. :) Everyone has been being most wonderful, bringing us dinners and holding Dylan so we can sneak in some naps. (So appreciated!) We're thoroughly enjoying showing her off to everyone, and feel very blessed to have such wonderful family & friends! I truly believe the saying that it "takes a village to raise a child", and am eternally grateful for all the love & support we've received from family & friends that have helped make this such a wonderful time for us. THANK YOU!