Baby, baby, baby

Well, it's all over now folks. Shante Karen Butler has finally arrived and joined our little family! We are both so excited to be parents and absolutely love her. She certainly did not bore us with her grand entrance into the world. It's a pretty good story. On Friday the 17th I got home from work and Ruthy and I decided to go walk around the mall as we had a few times prior to try and get labor moving along. We walked around for a few hours, but nothing real exciting happened. We went home and had dinner and hung around the house for awhile. About 9:30 that night we decided to go back out to Wal-Mart and give it another try. We walked laps for a few hours around the store before giving up for the night and heading home. We had just got settled into bed for the night when Ruthy started having contractions pretty close together. She stood up by the bed and her water broke! I looked up and said "Are you serious?!". Obviously she was and we hurried to the hospital! She changed and got set up in the delivery room and they hooked up her IV and everything. The nurse checked her soon after we walked in and she was dilated to a four. The nurse went out of the room to do paperwork and call our doctor and Ruthy started to have VERY intense contractions. She yelled that she felt she had to push, but was obviously worried about doing so. I ran out into the hall and told the nurse and she came back in quickly. Ruthy was then dilated to an eight only fifteen minutes after being at a four. The nurse stayed calm and said to try not to push and ran back out to try calling the doctor again. The next contraction Ruthy had we could see her starting to come! I ran (frantically and freaking out, but trying to be calm) to the hall and yelled that she was coming. Four nurses ran into the room. Ruthy had one long push and Shante was out!! The nurse helped to support the babies head, but technically the bed delivered her as she slid out and right on to the bed! It was amazing. Our doctor didn't actually show up until about 15 minutes after the actual delivery. It all just went so fast! She weighed 7lbs and 10oz and is 20in long! She was born at 12:51am on April 18th! The kicker to the story is that Ruthy had fully planned on having an epidurl for the pain and was then forced to do it naturally. I swear, I have never been more proud of someone in my life. She is amazing and did what she had to do to bring our beautiful daughter into the world. I was in shock at how quickly it had happened and what a fantastic job she had done. She was out, they cleaned her up and handed her to us. We were so happy to have her here and to see what a beautiful baby she is. We can't imagine life without her now. Here are some pictures.

Ruthy's first time holding Shante.

Jordan's first time holding her.

Daddy and Shante love to cuddle!

Shante in her coming home outfit.

So cute!

Our beautiful little girl!

Thanks to everyone for the love and support throughout the pregnancy and those who visited us at the hospital and have helped take care of us. We love you all!