Shannon Louise Beauchamp, waving hello. :)

Here is our little munchkin..Shannon Louise Beauchamp: 8 lb, 4oz, 20.5 in. long. Born at 3:51 PM, Saturday, January 26th, 2008!

This is not the best picture, but I will be posting more later. She was still a bit puffy here. This is one of the pics the birthing center took. She has a full head of wavy black hair! She is one of the sweetest babies ever! We will see if her temperment remains as sweet once she is past the newborn stage :)...she really has been a little trooper though, so far. She had a touch of jaundice that developed after we were home, so they have her on a "bilibed" here at our home for hopefully only a couple days. She has to be on it constantly except for nursing...no cuddly time! It has made nursing a little less painful though--I get my cuddly time with her that way. :)

I had the best crew ever for the delivery! My wonderful husband, my mom, my sister--all the way from France!, my sister-in-law Kristin...and my Daddy was even in the room, over on the couch, for when she was actually born! Dr. Trinh was wonderful, as well as Katie, the nurse, and all the other wonderful nurses that took care of me. It was pretty funny--as the end got near, I had all these faces peering around me and counting--Dave was yelling it in my ear.."1!, 2!, 3!, 4!...etc" but it actually is what really helped me focus at the very end when I was feeling faint and absolutely exhausted. And oh! what joy when I had her on my chest for the first time! She was so beautiful, and was crying till she was put on me...then she calmed immediately. *sigh* BLISS!

Waters Broke at 2:00 AM...12 hours later we have a Baby!!

We had Pride and Prejudice (the good long version :)) playing during labor...it was soothing to me, and provided a bit of distraction between contractions. After being dilated to 5 for a while, I was so exhausted! I decided to go for the epidural. What relief! The rest of the time was pleasant--until the pushing! Shannon was two and a half weeks early, and ended up weighing 8 lb, 4 oz...which her daddy guessed exactly right when Dr. Trinh said to guess! But that to say, she was a big girl to get out! I must say, the pushing was a bit worse than I had anticipated..I tore pretty badly along with an episiotomy. I pushed for a little over an hour, which they tell me is very good for a first baby with an epidural. I let the epidural wear off as I started pushing, so I felt those last contractions very much! It helped me do a better job pushing, though... And then!! When you think you can't take it anymore...you hear your wonderful tiny daughter cry, and nothing else matters! :) What an amazing feeling it was to see my baby for the first time! Words just cannot express it! God is so good...Dave and I are so very blessed! We love our little girl more than we could have imagined possible. :)
Our litte angel...
Proud grandparents with their first grandaughter!

The Day Before...

Here I am on Friday at West of Paris, holding my little nephew Etienne...it was the first time I'd met him! Suzanne is here till the 5th, and it's been SO wonderful to see her again--I miss my big sis being around! :( It was so much fun to meet Etienne...he is one of the most unusually beautiful babies I've ever seen!
Dave came with me and we had lunch with Suz, Etienne, Val, and Mommy and Daddy--I think it was the yummy French food that made Shannon anxious to be in this world! :) Little did I know that my water's would break during the night...more on that above...