Introducing our precious little girl.....

Collins Richardson Glenn arrived on Friday February 17, 2012 at 1:31 pm, weighing 6 lb and 12 oz and 19.5 inches!

Our first picture as a family of three. Hard to describe how incredibly happy this makes me.

What a wirlwind that week was. Sweet girls due date was not until March 1....so needless to say, I was not mentally prepared to have a baby yet. Between my 36 and 37 weeks, I started to have high blood pressure at my appointments. I would go in more frequently just for them to check my BP to see what it was doing. It was really high on Wed February 8, but then I went back on Friday February 10 and it was normal. So I went about my business with instructions from my doctor to just TAKE IT EASY. Well, easier said than done. Anyways, I went back to see my doctor on Monday February 13 and it was high again and at that time he wanted me to go ahead and stop working. I really didn't want to do that yet...and my job at this point was really low stress and I could literally just sit in my office chair all day. So...i kept working and was due to go back Wednesday February 15. Well, Wednesday the BP was still high and for the FIRST time they found protein in my urine....which can mean preeclampsia. YUCK. So, I was put on 24 hour bed rest and had to do some other tests to see if they thought it was preeclampsia. By Thursday February 16 there was even more protein and BP stayed high. The Doctor on call and MY personal Doctor laid out options and both felt I should go ahead and get induced. (The fear was that if I was developing preeclampsia, the longer I waited I risked my health and babies health and took risk of having to have emergency c section.) *SAY, WHAT........insert major panic attack* I was 38 weeks on that Thursday and not in any danger zone....in other words if I was only 36 weeks or something they would have kept me on bed rest a while....but they both felt the best and safest course was to go ahead and deliver the baby. Do HUH!?! Mikey and I were both overwhelmed, we were going to have a baby TOMORROW?????? A February baby? Huh? I always though if anything little girl would have been late, so she was always a "march" baby in my mind.

Anyways, we were sent home at lunch with orders to report to the hospital that night to begin the induction process. WOW. There were two main reasons I never wanted to get induced, one being the anxiety I would have and the other being that I was scared I would have to have a c section. Well, the anxiety was definitely there. I was a nervous wreck, running on auto pilot. My mom came and helped get everything ready at the house, sent us off to the hospital.

We checked in at 8 and I was immediately hooked up and started the process. I was shocked. This all happened so fast! They gave me an ambien that night, but that was a joke! I was uncomfortable, my vitals were being checked frequently and I had to get up to pee every hour. By 7:30 the next morning, I was ready....it was time to get the induction underway.

My water was broken at 8:30 am on Friday February 17....from 8:30 to 10 am, I was in labor...contractions every three minutes apart, nothing insanely painful...just pretty uncomfortable. I had some nubain around 10 to take the "edge off," yeah...not so much. This just made me loopy and didn't really take the pain away. By 11 am I was 5 cm dialated and ready for my epidural. Woohoo! Had to wait a little bit for my IV bag to empty so I received the epidural around 11:30 or so. It was almost painless and I was so surprised. I had heard it can hurtl...but my doctor was amazing and I barely felt the needle. The epidural started working about 15 minutes later and I pretty much dozed in and out for the next hour or so. It was great! They woke me up at 1 pm and told me I was 10 cm and it was time to start pushing! HOLY COW, this was it! We were about to meet our baby girl! How amazing. Mikey went and got my mom (the family was in the room up until I received my epidural but then everyone had to leave except Mikey...and I guess they just never came back in since I was sleeping). Anyways, mom came in and it was just Mikey and my mom, me and the nurses and doctor. I started pushing at 1:05 and our beautiful (yeah...I am biased, that's allowed, right?) baby girl arrived at 1:31 pm. No screaming, no tears, nothing. Almost too easy, dare I say. As my best friend who is a nurse practitioner OBGYN described it, I had the "textbook" induction/labor/delivery and for that I am SO very thankful.

We are so thankful that everything went so well and we ended up with a healthy, wonderful, precious baby in the end. I was so scared about being induced at 38 weeks and what all could happen, I thank God that it all worked out the way it was supposed to. We are absolutely head over heels in love with our sweet Collins, she is perfect to us in EVERY way imaginable. She has a head full of DARK brown hair, which shocked the heck out of me! I never expected her to be blonde but I definitely didn't expect so MUCH dark brown hair! And her little complexion is so pretty and more olive toned...from her daddy's side of the family. Her first few days of life people said she was "all Richardson" (my side of the family) and now everyone thinks she is all "her daddy":) Either way is fine with me, they change so much...I am just amazed that this precious little being is ours! Thank you God for allowing Mikey and I to be parents to this precious little girl!

Going home from the hospital:)

So in love.




We tried so hard to get a few good pics of us..this was Friday night...my dad kept saying I wasn't doing my normal smile...well hello, look how SWOLLEN I was!!?? OUCH. They say it is from all the drugs, liquids they pump you with...but wow my face looks like it was stung by a bee. Ha! Thanks dad for making sure I knew it:)

Collins with her Lolly and Granddaddy

with Granddadder and Khaki

meeting her cousin Belle:)

Meeting her Great Grandparents!

Mimi and Woody

Can't believe this took me so long to post....but goodness, I think I've had more important things to tend to! We are so thankful for all of our family and friends who have been so wonderful in this first week...we haven't had to cook, or worry about a thing!