It's a Girl!

Melanie Jean Joyner arrived this afternoon at 4:41 pm weighing 7 lbs. 4 oz. and 20.5 inches long.  She has a full head of light brown hair, ten fingers, ten toes, and eyes that melt my heart.  She is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen............

Mother and daughter are both doing great.  Joanna was able to feed her minutes after the birth and just finished her second feeding this evening.........so far so good.  Now, let's see if we can get some sleep tonight!

Thanks to all of you who have been thinking of us, helping us, and guiding us along this journey.  Though it has just begun we feel like so much has already been accomplished.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Love-Mark, Joanna, and Melanie

Labor Day

6 AM-

Good morning world, we're gonna be parents today!  Joanna and I are waking up here at northside hospital in a fog from a short restless night numb from the sleep aids.  Joanna had a couple ambien before bed and I had advil PM.  Man that stuff works well.........scary 

Joanna is hanging in there.  She has been having very mild contraction since Friday afternoon when we got here.  Though she couldn't feel them yesterday, through the night they have been increasing in strength and are now mildly noticable.  Her cervix is measuring 5cm this morning which is a good sign as she had progressed through the night.  The nurse just came in and started the petocin.  Which should really get things going........not long now

Joanna has asked several times "when can we start the epidural?"  "How long will it take to get the epidural started?"  "If I go into labor, will it be too late for the petocin?"  She's a little nervous about the pain, if you can't tell.  We both tend to jointly reply "NO" when any of the nurses ask if we want to go "natural".  I know I know, no pain no gain, right......wrong

12 PM-

Joanna is now dialated 8cm!.....not long now.  She got her epdiural this morning and has been very comfortable laying in the bed since.  We've even gotten a couple naps in.  I think I've seen more of ESPN's gameday today than I have all year!  Joanna is handling all this in stride.  As matter of fact she just told the nurse "this is fun".  Maybe it's the drugs, I don't know, but this doesn't exactly seem like fun to me.  Beautiful experience, yes.  Memorable event, most certainly, but fun?.............

2 PM-

Time to push.......Joanna is fully dialated, Melanie is in position, and it's time to push. Joanna's body has done all the work it can do on it's own without her pushing.  Time to cowgirl up and push this baby out!