Fiesty Meiste's: how great is our god

the last week has left me overwhelemd by the blessing of a sweet baby girl. i truly cannot get enough of the adorable little precious, putting her down to be productive is just about the most difficult thing about my days. (note the usage of just about, my days are oft still full of beautiful baby adoration and two little boys' naughtiness).

here is the story of our little girl's arrival:

once upon a time, friday, aug 20th at 3am, i started having contractions every 10 min. i had many, many braxton hicks with this pregnancy, so i knew there was a difference and the second my mind thought, it could be today that we meet this baby, there was no rest, only adrenaline. so i painted my toes and fingernails, did some laundry, watched some reality tv, and paced until the rest of the fam sensed the excitement and got up for the day.

we were especially thrilled with the possibility that our babe could be born on aug 20th, brad's dad's bday. what a sweet legacy and reminder of austin jay meiste, to have a grandbaby born on his birthday. just in case, our girls' name, ayla jo, utilized the same intials as austin jay, so both would be ajm. special.

so, by noonish, the contractions had intensified and were now every 3-5 minutes. after taking the boys for a hard walk, i called brad and sandy to come on over, thinking i should be at the hospital with plenty of time for the group b strep antibiotic. we arrived at the hospital, next door to our super friends the legwaters who had just had baby elliot, and got checked out. i was dialated to a whopping 2 cm. boo. under the guidance of nurse vicki, my dad's old girlfriend from highschool, and the very same nurse who labored with maxwell, we decided to wait it out and check in an hour or so. during that time, we visited with the legwaters and met baby elliot. so sweet! after two hours, my hard contraction work resulted only in slight progress, vicki assured me i was now measuring 3 cm, but i think she lied in effort to keep me in the hospital.

we made a plan with dr taylor to start the antibiotics, followed by some pitocin, aka go juice. antibiotics in at 4, pitocin began at 8:30. brad and i spent the entire day together chatting, anticipating, reminiscing, and playing card games. it was some nice quality time together just the two of us while awaiting the newest fam member. finally, i asked to be checked at 11 pm, exhausted after laboring all day. bad news, nothing had happened since 4! boo.

dr taylor stopped in and suggested two paths for us to choose from:

1. go home, sleep, and hope labor progresses in a couple days. then come back to the hospital and redo all the antibiotics. umm, no. or

2. take sleeping pill, continue to increase pitocin and hope progress is made during the night.

we went with the second option. after two LARGE sleeping pills, i was a loopy doop. at one point, i asked brad how many tvs were in the room. brad took the liberty to go ahead and insist on an epidural at that time. he was way concerned about the whole passing out due to my proclamations of pain and dying again. i recall getting the epidural, being checked again around 5 (and at a 5 at this point), and then jolting awake at 6 with intense pain. after pushing the epidural juice button several times, connie the nurse assured me she would check me while putting in a catheter. after the check, she calmly dialed dr taylor and demanded he get here immediately. no catheter, baby was ready to be born.

about 10 minutes later, we hear dr taylor running down the hall. he arrived, sat down, gloved up and told me i could push whenever i felt the need. while i needed, after like one push, dr taylor announced it was a girl!

he handed her over,