Coranelle Grace Mork!

Coranelle arrived on May 26th, 2009 at 2:25am after a 16 hour labor. She came on her due date and arrived like a beautiful, perfect doll. We still cannot believe she is ours and that we made her! She weighed 6 pounds 6 oz and was 20 3/4 inches long. She was a perfect size to come out of me. She was very similar in size to Ryan when he was born. We assumed all along that we would have a "mini Kari" since we were having a girl. But, she looks a lot like daddy! She was born with long, dark hair and dark eyes. She has Ryan's perfect lips and my nose and a little bit of chubby cheeks. She is truly beautiful!
My labor was long. We got to the hospital at 9am Monday morning after being there three hours the night before because of contractions and then sent home. Mom and Heido got here at 9am. I started having bad contractions at about 10am, but was only 1cm dilated. We walked around for a long time and I got to 3cm dilated and they decided to let me stay. By then, the contractions got really bad. I was blacking out and shaking, but not making any progress. We decided then to go for the epidural. I realized that if I had to continue for 5 + hours of contractions like this, I would have no energy left to push. It was a great decision and made me more comfortable and focused. I still hadn't made much progress by late in the afternoon, so my doctor came and broke my water. This still didn't make the contractions very regular. I was "coupling", so I wasn't dilating much. So, next the put me on pitosin to make the contractions more regular. This did eventually help, but I was getting really worn out by 10pm, so they had to give me more for the epidural. Josh, Claire, Stefan, Rachael, Bruce, and Steve all came by for visits and support. My team of mom, Heido and Ryan was amazing and they pushed through the LONG day and held my hand, encouraged and fed me jello. Finally by 1am, I was complete and they let me start pushing at about 1:30am. I was relieved to finally push and have things moving along. I pushed with all my might while Ryan counted through the pushes and supported my head and encouraged me. The moms held my legs and were troopers. The doctor was called and I pushed for under an hour. It was so excited to hear them talk about her head of black hair and how close she was getting. What a relief when I was done and she, the beautiful, perfect child, was laid upon my chest. She was very alert and awake and didn't cry much. She was an 8-9 on the apgar scale and looking healthy. Whew! Next, I delivered the placenta, got stitched up and she was weighed and cleaned. We tried breast feeding a bit and then she was taken off for a bath with Ryan. My doctors, nurses, moms and Ryan were AMAZING! I could not have done it without them and they have been so wonderful!
Now, we are getting used to the feedinds and working on the breast feeding. My milk just came in and so we hope that at the doctor's tomorrow, she will have stopped losing weight. We are getting the hang of things and finding ourselves just staring at her for hours at a time- in wonder of the blessing that she is. We are such a happy and proud family.
She is stirring, so I will write more details when I get a few free moments. Thanks for all of the visitors, e-mails, thoughts, prayers and support!