June 16, 2009 (Tuesday) - June 18, 2009

I've been having "cramps" since Friday, they became more regular and frequent, by Monday night i was being woken up every 10-15 minutes with cramps. I really thought we'd see Baby Reis soon.

I was disappointed when Tuesday evening came around and the cramps were still 10-15 minutes apart. Around 10pm they started becoming more uncomfortable and I was starting to wonder when the "real labor" would begin. It came on quick and strong...all of a sudden I was contracting every 3 minutes and we hadn't called the midwife yet!! I was waiting for my water to break, as I thought that was the true sign that labor had begun...thank goodness Aurelio was a little wiser than that - he called Joyce at 1am when I'd had cramps 3 minutes apart for an hour and she arrived at 2am...surprised by how advanced I already was in the labor. My water broke at 3:30am on Wednesday and Alina Isabella Reis arrived at 4:03am!!! I was VERY lucky to have such an "easy", "short" labor and we have a healthy 7pd 10oz little GIRL!!!!! :)

Immediately following the birth I swore that was the craziest thing I ever did and couldn't believe I was dumb enough to do it without drugs...but now just 36 hours later, I already know for our next child we'll do it the same way. It was so nice to be in our own home, to be able to walk around freely and then after the birth we both laid in bed with our new baby and just basked in the glory of it all.

It took us a while to decide on a name for her; it's so much pressure deciding a persons name!! :) We wanted to find the perfect one that she'd be happy to have for her whole life...maybe we put too much into it ;).

We have made some wonderful friends here in Texas; they put together a meal plan for us so that we don't have to worry about cooking dinner for the next week! I don't know how we are ever going to repay them for everything they have done to support us through this process.

I'm still sore from the whole experience, but I couldn't be happier to wake up every hour to feed Alina and Aurelio has changed SO many diapers, happily. :) I woke up this morning at 6am completely, deliriously happy. We just stare at her and smile...commenting on her many cute faces, not wanting to miss one precious moment.