Introducing . . . Bravery Rain

Our baby girl was born Sunday, February 9, 2014 at 6:50 am. Here are her stats:

Bravery Rain Cronin

7 lbs. 8 oz.

20 3/4 inches

Quite a bit of black hair and dark grey eyes

Here's the full birth story (skip through and look at the pictures if you don't want all the details):
I started having contractions around 10:30 pm Saturday night. I tried to sleep through them thinking they would probably stop like they had several times before. The contractions were about 10 minutes apart so if I did doze at all, I was quickly awakened every 10 minutes. Finally at around 11:45 I got out of bed. It was at about this point that the contractions sped up and started coming every 5-7 minutes. I decided to call my mom to get her opinion because I didn't want to wake Travis in case this was the real thing and we were looking at pulling an all-nighter. My mom convinced me this was the real thing and told me to wake my husband and call my aunt to come over soon. My wonderful mom then proceeded to change her flight (to a much more expensive one) so she could get here by noon that day. I took my mom's advice, woke Travis and he made arrangements for my Aunt Leslie to come over. My aunt and uncle live about 30 minutes away so while we waited for them to arrive my contractions got a lot more intense and started coming every 3-5 minutes. Everything was happening so fast I started to freak out a little, thank goodness I had Travis. He calmed me and we made it to the hospital at 1:30 am.
My contractions were coming so hard and so fast I really thought I was going to loose it before I got the epidural. I don't know how many times I asked the triage nurse when I could get my epidural but apparently she took me serious at about 3 am when I was dilated to a 6 and really struggling with each contraction that kept coming every 1-2 minutes. The nurse then brought in the anesthesiologist to give me the epidural before I was even officially admitted. I was so grateful! I immediately started feeling less of the contractions but after a half an hour was still not numb and still in a lot of pain. The anesthesiologist came back two more times over the next couple of hours to give me larger doses of medication but I was still feeling every contraction.

At about 5:30 am I was dilated to a 10 but my water had yet to break. I think they were waiting for it to happen (which I told them it never would) and hoping I'd have my pain under control before I started pushing but it just wasn't happening. It was finally decided that the epidural was kinked or turned a weird way and was not going to work for me. They took it out and gave me a new epidural. Immediately I was completely numb which was better than feeling every contraction but not exactly how I was hoping to deliver.
The doctor decided he'd wait an hour or so for some of the numbing to wear off so that I could push. It was at this point though that the baby's heart rate started jumping around. They put me on oxygen and got her stable for a few minutes but then it jumped around again. The doctor decided it was time to just get her out. They broke my water and four pushes later (I couldn't feel anything) Bravery was born. By far my hardest labor but my easiest delivery.

They immediately put her on my belly and I got to watch her take her first breath. It was so amazing. Every other time the baby wasn't in my view when they let out that first cry so that was really cool to see. We were also surprised to find out that she was 7 1/2 pounds. I have never had a baby over 6 lbs. 4 oz. but I guess this was also the longest I have ever carried a baby (1 week longer than Wisdom and Passion and 3 days longer than Kindly). Bravery was beautiful and perfectly healthy. The hospital staff was amazing and just left us alone for a while so we got to really soak it all in and spend some time together.

My mom arrived and brought the kids up that afternoon. Wisdom has been so cute with Bravery. He is very gentle and uses a sweet, quiet voice when he talks to her. The only struggles we've had have been emotions running high--more fits and tears and not getting too hyper or loud around the baby. He's adjusting and doing better though.

Kindly has been looking forward to her sister arriving maybe even more than me. She has loved every second of holding her and is constantly asking to hold Bravery. Passion and her have had quite the competition of who gets to hold her first and for the longest. It's actually worked out to my benefit and homework, piano practicing and other responsibilities are getting accomplished really quickly with the motivation to hold the baby.

It has been so nice to have my mom here. She has done all the cooking and cleaning and it has been a huge help not having to worry about getting the girls to and from school. The girls also happily do their homework for Grandma. :)

Making silly faces for the baby!

Overall we are slowly adjusting to having a newborn in the house. Starting out by pulling an all-nighter didn't help but our bodies are getting used to functioning on very little sleep. One thing about spacing out your kids so far is that you forget how difficult those first few weeks are on so little sleep. After having nearly 3 years of mostly uninterrupted sleep, this is quite the adjustment but worth it for this cute little lady!

 Here the kids were liking how much Bravery was sticking out her tongue.

 Just after a bath. Cozy and warm again.

We think she is the cutest baby we have ever seen!

It took her a couple of days but she finally started to really open her eyes.

 Wisdom really loves being a big brother! 

 I love the look on Bravery's face here. She is just cracking a smile.

Welcome to the world Bravery Rain. We are so excited to have you in our family!