World, meet Ally!

Our darling daughter was born on a Tuesday morning, on the 20th of September.  After 13 hours of labor, I finally met our big 7-pound-and-1-ounce baby girl. World, meet our dear Amara Luna.

Our beautiful baby girl.

God is good!  We are thankful for our healthy little girl!  We are thankful for a safe and uncomplicated delivery.  :) I conquered the pain!

I am thankful too for the delivery room pictures, because the hour I spent in there was a blur.  I don't remember much, except I thought I was going to die because of the pain.  Haha.

I didn't even know it was possible to bring a camera inside the delivery room.  I thought they only did that for special cases. Like if you were the wife of the doctor or something.  So I didn't think to ask.  Imagine my surprise when a nurse called me and asked me to smile at the camera.

Smiling when you're in labor is a challenge. 

Part of me was happy they'd document the event.  But another part of me was worried they'd also document my, uhm... lady parts.  When they gave the cam back to my mom, she didn't want to view the photos for fear of having to see my hoo-hah.  No worries - all the photos were rated General Patronage, and not PG.

I thought it was my mom who requested that they take pictures, but then I learned later on that it was the other way around.  The nurse at the station paged my mom and asked for a camera.  She didn't bring one.  Good thing she thought of rummaging through my bag back in my room. Apparently, making the anesthesiologist take photos during delivery is sort of an unwritten S.O.P. at the hospital.  Lucky us!   We didn't need to book the outrageously expensive Lamaze room to get priceless photos of Ally's first few minutes on earth.

I love you Ally.

I might post about my labor and delivery story, for those of you waiting for your own D-day, or wondering what it's like.  If I remember the details, that is. For now, all I can say is: We made it! If I could do it, you can too!