Sorry it's taken so long to put something up here, but we've been a little busy. We went to the hospital on Saturday afternoon because I thought that I was in labor. I was having contractions 2-3 minutes apart and so we went. I had to wait in the waiting room for over an hour which was miserable. They then checked me out and said that the contractions were not as consistent as I thought and that I was not dilated enough. They sent me home with a sleeping pill and said I would know it I was in labor. Said I would not be able to sleep through it even with the sleeping pill. I went to bed at 9:15 pm and woke up at 12:30 am with very uncomfortable contractions. Went back to bed for another hour or so and then was up again. Frank and I got up around 2:30 and tried getting me more comfortable by taking a bath. It didn't work.

We went to the hospital at 4:30am (Sunday morning, April 13, 2008) and I was finally in a room with some pain medicine by 5:30 am. I got my epidural around 8:30 am and then tried to sleep most of the day. We finally started pushing around 7:30 pm and Noelle Marie Steele arrived at 10:04 pm Sunday, April 13th. She weighed 8 lbs, 9 oz and was 21 inches long. She is just beautiful.

We stayed in the hospital until Tuesday mid day and then finally came home. Really it didn't seem like we were in the hospital very long. Noelle didn't sleep well in the hospital, especially on Monday night. She kept us up all night.

She has been an angel since we got home. All she does is sleep and I feed her every 3 hours. We usually have to wake her up from her deep sleeping to get her to feed. She is doing great.

Today we went for her first doctor's visit. The doctor said "she is just perfect." This was the third peditrician in our practice that has said those exact words. That's very nice to hear, especially from the doctors. She has lost a little weight since birth and is down to 8 lbs, but I'm sure she'll start moving up pretty quickly. She's eating well. =)

I would post more pics, but there are so many to look at. If you would like to see them all, just go to our picasa website and take a look.

http://picasaweb.google.com/BabySteele08

Hope you all enjoy. I'll try to update more often, but I'm just trying to get some sleep while she's sleeping and then also trying to keep myself nourished. There is just not as much time as you would like to have to get things done. I'm sure it will get better.

Well, it's time for bed. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers and kind emails we've received. We really appreciate them!

That's all for now.

Leigh Ann, Frank, & Noelle