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Where do I start?! When James and I went to the hospital at 11am on Tuesday I wasn’t feeling any contractions, but later came to find when they hooked me up to the monitor (around 12:30pm) that I was in fact having contractions. Not too bad of a gig, or so I thought, after I watched a contraction register on the machine and had no discomfort.

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After what James would say was the longest day and night of his life (I’m not sure if it’s because of the lack of sleep we both got or because I finally got a 24 hour back massage to make up for the times I’ve requested one and got the infamous “ok… squeeze, squeeze, rub, rub all done” massage). The hours seemed to go by quickly and around 9 pm the contractions came stronger and faster. Around 5:30am the contractions were 2 minutes apart and the nurses were concerned that Chloe’s heartbeat was dropping with each contraction before returning to normal. Our doctor made the decision to continue laboring (under close scrutiny) with the understanding that we wanted to avoid a c-section (cesarean) if possible but, by 10:00am the laboring hadn’t progressed (I was only dilated 6 cm) and Chloe was in distress so everyone agreed that a c-section was necessary. I was rather calm about my first surgery and so excited that we were about to meet our little girl. James was given a sterile suit to wear and joined me in the operating room. He sat next to me and chatted to me and my anesthesiologist about Australia while we anxiously awaited Chloe’s arrival.

Hearing her cry brought tears to our eyes and we were in awe. The nurse bundled her up and brought her over to James to hold and I got to give her a kiss before James followed Chloe to the nursey where she would be examined.

I was brought to the recovery room to be monitored for about an hour and then we proceeded to one of the private rooms they had just added on to the hospital (lucky for us!). Chloe soon followed and it was the greatest feeling getting to hold her and stare at her for the first time!

We came home on Friday evening and have been learning that Chloe is now the one who decides what is going to happen and when. We’ve been having fun capturing some photos (ok, honestly, we take about 50 pictures a day).

Thank you to all of you for your phone calls and emails and text messages! We are so lucky and thankful she has so many people who are thinking of her! 

We hope you enjoy these photos as much as we do!…

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Grandma and Grandpa enjoying quality ‘Chloe time’ with their first grandchild.

Loves to sleep with both hands by her head.

We think this shot perfectly captures Chloe’s personality.

Finger wrestling with Dad.

Checkin’ out a very smitten Mom.

Sporting a new outfit care of Aunt Stacey.

Drop and give me fifty!

Click here for more photos (many more) of Chloe in our photo gallery

All along we were certain she was going to be a September baby but now we realize she had other plans. 24 hours of laboring (and one of the longest nights of our lives) later…Chloe has finally shown her face to the world. And what a cute one it is too (in my extremely biased opinion).

Chloe was born at 12:34pm on October 1, 2008 weighing in at 6 lbs 13 oz and measuring 20 inches long. Elana is doing really well and loving every second in her new role as Mum.

From the second we heard Chloe’s first cry our hearts were stolen. We’re both still in disbelief that she’s ours…that we actually created this brand new little life. Thankfully she hasn’t cried a lot yet and to have her fall asleep on my chest is just PURE joy!

I don’t have long to write as I’m away from the hospital (no WIFI!) and want to get back to my gorgeous little girl but I wanted to get the message out and post a few preliminary photos. I turned down $1M from People magazine for an exclusive, just so you all would be the first to view!