Introducing Alyssa Grace Tucker

We headed to the hospital at 6:30 a.m. They got us set up in a LDR (labor-delivery room). My mom met us there shortly after we got settle in. I was about 3 cm dilated when they checked. I progressed to about 4 cm when the contractions began to radiate through my back. At that point I pictured the photo I saw of Kelle with a bright, shining smile on her face holding up 9 fingers to indicate that she was 9 cm dilated. What was I trying to prove? All I wanted was to know what contractions felt like. I knew...so I ordered an epidural.

Wow!! Those things are amazing. I felt nothing. We had to look at the monitor to see when I was having contractions. I was about 5 cm dilated when Dr. Kooperman came in to check on me. I didn't like that I couldn't feel my right leg so I asked to turn the epidural down. When they finally ok'd my request the doc was back from grabbing a quick lunch. I was ready to go...10 cm dilated!! I didn't feel the need to push (until the end when the epidural started wearing off) so Andy and the nurse had to tell me when to push. Weird!! I could only tell if I was pushing right by what the nurse told me. When Andy said he could see the head I was much more motivated to keep going. I think he must have told me "the baby has a LOT of DARK hair!" about 15 times. :)

The umbilical cord tightened around her neck just as I could see in the reflection of the OB's glasses that she was just about ready to come out. He had to cut me. :( Really, I didn't care I wanted the baby out safely!! After 1 1/2 hours of pushing out SHE came. (We didn't know the sex.)

Andy actually did it...he cut the umbilical cord. (He was absolutely amazing throughout the entire birth!) Then they let me hold my new daughter. My first thoughts were: "Why is her skin so dark? Whose baby is this? She's not black or Hispanic." I quickly realized that she was BLUE. She pinked-up fast and I saw how beautiful she was. I got to hold her for what felt like only a few seconds...I guess they had to clean her up and stuff. :( It was a good thing we took pics because she was taken away to the nursery way too quickly. I really didn't feel like I even got to look at her.IT'S A GIRL!! But we didn't have a name. We were set on a boy's name, but I just couldn't really settle on any of the girl's names we had chosen. Andy wanted Morgan so I went along with it and the plan was to name her Morgan Amelia...but in the few minutes that I did get to see her I decided the name didn't fit. So "baby girl Tucker" was taken away from me. How can you decide on a name if you can't look at her?

We began calling people and letting them know we had a girl...7 lbs, 13 oz. But they all wanted to know the name...can't anyone understand that this is not an easy decision?!? :)

Eventually after lots of discussion and finally being able to look at our beautiful little sweet pea she officially had a name...Alyssa Grace.