Baby Winter! FINALLY!

I will be honest. When my sister Shannon hit 5 days "overdue" I was pretty sure her baby was going to stay where he/she was until they turned 18. Seriously. It seemed like he/she was WEEKS late due to the fact that I had my bags packed and ready for almost three weeks now. Shannon had contractions on and off for about two weeks so she was ready, too!

I told my sister that if she didn't go into labor by Thursday (July 11th) I was going to lace her smoothie with castor oil. And I wasn't kidding. I had been in Aurora since Monday afternoon and I was missing my husband and tired of waiting and waiting and waiting. But that's when it happened.
We had begun timing her contractions Wednesday afternoon since they seemed to be more regular. Into the evening her contractions were getting much stronger and lasting much longer.

 As Shannon went to bed on Wednesday night she told me to be ready because she though it was the night . And, just as she expected, we left at 2:15am for the birth center (she was GBS positive so she had to get to the birth center within an hour of labor).

Then came the not-so-fun part:

This was her common pose during early labor

Oops- I got a little tired and Ryan snapped my picture while I slept on the birth center couch

 And while Shannon suffered labor pains, I read up on cheese while drinking San Pelligrino ;-)

 

 After hours of hard labor, the midwives bumped up the intensity by wrapping a scarf around her belly (which she was NOT happy about) and then they did some INTENSE robozo to get the baby to shift into the right position (which made Shannon want to punch the midwife in the face, apparently).

Ryan was such a wonderfully supportive husband during her labor.
It was a joy to watch.

But then a few hours later, at 9:58am, their baby GIRL was born. Payton Ely Winter. 7lbs 13oz 21 inches long and 100% adorable.

(and we got to mark one extra thing off of our "Summer Fun List"-- hold a new baby!)

Which, apparently, we need to work on.
She just picked her right up while I was taking pictures! EEK!

Proud big brother

Woah! She moves!

Happy happy happy.

And just so everyone is aware, your tummy does not go right back into your skinny jeans after birthing a baby. It takes a few weeks for everything to move back into place and shrink back into its original size (if it ever does). Shannon is happily back into her pre-pregnancy jeans two weeks later. :-D

We love you Payton!