Our Stubborn Little Miracle Finally Arrives

After May 29th came and went, and no baby arrived, we realized that Baby Hoffman was going to be late - and she was going to be stubborn (like both her parents)! One of the doctors in the OB/GYN practice I had been going to decided on June 1st that I would need to be induced, so at 4:30pm that day, I got the call that we would be going to Labor and Delivery at 8:00am on Friday, June 3rd to have our daughter. I was instantly excited and nervous at the same time. Finally...a date, a plan! Boy - did Baby Hoffman have other ideas!

The pictures can pretty much tell the story, but we arrived at 8:00am on June 3rd, nervous but excited and ready to meet our daughter. Eric was hoping to have her by lunchtime. I was hoping dinnertime! Everyone else was hoping by bedtime. We had two FANTASTIC nurses, Sherrie and Cindy, who were with us all day until they were forced to leave their shift at 7:30pm, saddened that we still hadn't had our baby. Luckily, we made their day (and they made ours) go by quite quickly, and they voted us "family of the year." The rest of our nurses were great too, but nothing compared to Sherrie and Cindy.

I was 3.5cm when I arrived at the hospital, and only moved to 5.5cm a few hours later. Everytime I was checked after that I was STILL 5.5. It was a little discouraging, but the day was passed with laughter, tv, cards, and good company. I finally went from 5.5cm to 10 between 10pm and 12:20am on June 4th. FINALLY! Unfortunately, one of the resident doctors who came in to check me and said I was ready to go and then paged my doctor, made me breathe through the pressure (since I had an epidural, I had no pain, but the pressure was incredibly intense) for an hour before my doctor arrived and let me begin pushing. At this point, Eric was my rock. I don't know what I would have done without him. He remembered our breathing techniques from our birthing classes and breathed through the pressure and contractions with me, and talked me through everything. He was so supportive, and before I knew it, the hour was up and it was time to meet my daughter. Again, Eric, who doesn't like blood, guts, or anything of that sort, was right there holding a leg, encouraging me to push so we could meet our precious daughter.

At 2:53am, our daughter, Zoey Constance Hoffman, finally came into this world, perfect as can be, with dark hair like her Daddy, weighing 7 pounds 9.5 ounces and she was 19 1/2 inches long. Eric cut her umbilical cord and he was so proud to meet her, as was I. We felt like we had waited so long for her!

Now that she's here, we just can't get enough of her!