ITS A GIRL!!!

Elena Noelle Dale was born at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, MI on December 9th at 11:31pm. She weighed 7 lbs 1 oz and was 20 inches long.

The Story: Contractions began the evening of Dec 8th around 11 at night... started with: "my stomach feels weird." Mary was able to fall asleep, but at around 4am, the contractions became more severe and more frequent. She thought..."this is it." We didn't want to head to the hospital prematurely, so we decided to try and make it to our already scheduled Dr. Appointment at 8am (happens to be on the way to the hospital.) Once 8 am rolled around the contractions were so severe it became difficult to impossible to walk/move when one occurred. We saw our Dr. and was told she was 2 centimeters dilated and in early labor. We were told to go home however and stay on our feet (to help move the baby down for delivery) until the contractions started to occur every 5-10 minutes. We went home and walked/danced/bounced around for a few hours, made the necessary phone calls to family, cleaned things up and did a final check on our overnight bags.

After a couple hours at home, Mary had had enough... It was time to get to the hospital. We arrived at the Hospital at noon in hopes of being admitted and given a room for delivery. Unfortunately, after checkup Mary was still only dilated 2 centimeters, but the contractions were occurring more frequently. We were instructed to walk/bounce around the hospital for a few hours. So we took the Dr's direction and bounced with it. At 3pm, the contractions were much more sever and were now occurring every 4-6 minutes. We decided it was time to head back and check in with the Dr. Mary was now 5 centimeters dilated - Thank Goodness. We were admitted and given a room around 6. Soon after Mary received the epidural to ease the pain and we knew we were moments away from Baby Time. A few hours later we were blessed with the greatest, most beautiful surprise of our life... a healthy baby girl!