She is finally here!

After being up till 4 with false contractions, the hospital called at 5:15 and asked if I could be there at 6. By the time I got there and all "hooked up", it was about 7:30. The epidural had a void spot on my stomach that wouldn't go numb unless my legs felt like tree trunks! So that made me feel a little claustrophobic, but other than that, we just laid there and waited. At noon I was a 7, and the Dr. came in to check up on me at about 12:25, gave me the "complete" news I had been waiting for, got changed into his "gear", and she was born at 12:34. She looked so tiny!!! All my others were in the 7 lb. range, but she only weighed in at

6 lb 9 oz

18 1/2 "

The kids all love her to pieces beg to hold her! It's nice to finally have her here and be able to take the last step in our crazy journey and move forward. She changes hourly! She keeps getting prettier by the minute! We finally decided on a name! Surprise, surprise! It wasn't easy. We just decided the night before I came home! We decided on

Macie Meikel Smith

All of my kids have a family given middle name from a different line of our family. Meikle is Richie's Grandma Smith's, mother's maiden name. It's pronounced like "nickle" but with an "M". To make it a middle name, we are switching the "L" and the "E" and pronouncing it "Mikell". I hope that makes sense.

We love her to pieces already! She is such a good baby! I just hope she can survive this new family she has! I have never seen us all together before and the "family photo" in the hospital was a real eye opener!!! Holy Cow is an understatement! No wonder everyone is so concerned! :)

A huge thank you to everyone that helped out with my kids while I had my very enjoyable stay at the hospital and bonded with Macie!!! And thank you to everyone that came to visit and called to check up on me! It makes me feel loved! I'm so thankful that I have such good family and friends!!!