Welcoming our new baby!

On October 19, baby Ruth Elizabeth Vinson was born! This much anticipated arrival came early in the morning. She was exactly a week late and we were getting a little impatient, maybe it was just me (Lauren). Josh and I had finished watching a movie on Saturday night and turned in around 11:30pm. Not an hour later, at 12:20am I was abruptly awoken when my water broke. Mild contractions started 15 minutes later and quickly intensified. We went to the Birth Center at 2:30am with the contractions closer together and lasting longer. I'm not sure the midwife quite believed me when I said the contractions were every 4 minutes and lasting 1 minute. I mean, I know I'm a first time mom, but I know how to read a watch! So we showed up there and she checked me and said "Oh! You're 6cm dilated! We'll keep you here." And so we stayed and the labor quickly progressed. I was imagining myself lounging in the hot tub for a few hours through labor, but the reality was there was no "lounging" during labor. I was in there for about a half hour before I got out and had to try something else to ease the pain. Josh had popped in the Gladiator soundtrack, one of my favorites, when we first got there, and it ran through just shy of two times before she made her entrance into the world. Ruth was born at 5:17am weighing in at 8lbs 4oz, and 20 1/2in long. She has a full head of dark hair and dark eyes. She is just beautiful. She's been a great baby, very content, eating well, and pooping a lot. :)
Josh has been an incredible dad. He was the self designated middle-of-the-night-diaper-changer for the first week as I was very sore and tired. He's amazing with her. I'm feeling better now, but we're still not getting a whole lot of sleep, which we expected. So that's it for now, she's waking up and will no doubt be hungry!