LR3 has Arrived!

I got a text around 4am this morning from my sister letting me know that she was having some contractions and was going to make her way to the hospital after having talked to the on-call doctor.  My mom met Jason and Kimmy at Backus Hospital around 4:45/5am-ish to pick up the girls and then came straight to my house.  Kimmy wanted me to be in the room with her and Jason when LR3 was born so I could video the momentous occasion so Babcia was going to watch AJ for me as well.  I ended up getting dressed and was almost ready to go when Jason text me around 5:45am that Kimmy was 2cm dilated.  I figured I had plenty of time to make a coffee, have a bathroom break and get my camera ready before having to walk out the door.  Well, not less than about 10-15 minutes later, I got another text from Jason saying Kimmy was now 9cm dilated. (HOLY CRAP - that was some fast dilation situation!) I dropped everything I was doing and rushed out the door leaving Babcia with the three kiddos.  I whizzed down the back roads, did about 80mph on Route 2 and then ran into the hospital trying to get to the maternity ward as soon as I could.  I finally got to the maternity ward door and I heard my phone go off. 'It's a girl!!!!!!!!!' wrote Kimmy.  I missed it.  :(  In the back of my mind I knew the labor was going to go fast, but I didn't think that fast so I thought they were just playing with me.  But when I finally got buzzed into the maternity floor and made my way to Kimmy's room, LR3 really had arrived and she was on the warming table.  As I walked into the room, I started crying and with tears streaming down my face I said 'I missed it'.  I was devastated.  Right then, Dr. Hendsch said to me 'Don't worry honey, I almost missed it too!'  It didn't make me feel any better for having the missed the birth of my new niece, but it put it into perspective how fast the labor went.

After having a minute to get over the fact that I missed LR3's birth, I fired up the video cam and began taping the first moments of LR3's life.  She was absolutely beautiful and I was just so overcome with emotion that I started to get teary-eyed again.  Another beautiful and healthy niece - what an awesome gift from my sister and Jason!

Introducing the newest member of our family.... Madeline Josephine.

Looking up at Mommy for the first time.

Isn't she just precious?!