Everything came out just fine...

Wow, it has been a while since we have posted anything! Actually, this is my first time, since Lisa has done all of the posts up until now. Pardon the pun in the title line, but we have some great news: Our baby girl, Shae Margaret, was born on July 24th. She was born at 2:22 pm and weighed 7 lbs, 13 oz and was 20 inches long. She is a few hours short of a week old as I write this. She is healthy and does nothing but sleep and eat and (well, you can imagine what else). When she cries to tell us she is hungry or needs to be changed, she has a raspy little cry that is very pathetic sounding, but endearing. We hope that she will continue to be as "easy" as she has been, but our hopes are most likely false since most newborns are that way the first week.

Here is a readers digest version of the delivery: Lisa asked Dr. Beck to schedule her for induced labor on July 24th, mostly so that we could be back at home for Hailey's first day of kindergarten (we will post pictures of that later). The induced labor seemed to progress slowly until about noon when Dr. Beck broke the water. The pain medication that the anethesiologist gave to Lisa worked to ease the contraction pains, but when it came time to push, she felt most everything. For me, the "delivery coach", it was overwhelming, so I can't imagine what it must have been like for her. I admire Lisa so much for the way she handled herself.

We recieved so much help from so many people, with meals, watching kids, gifts, and even helping with the first few tiring days (and nights) of being home. We feel so lucky and blessed to have such generous people in our lives!

So, here are some pictures of our sweet little girl with her big sisters. They are being good helpers to Mom and Dad!