Good Evening MotherTalkers,

Well I'm finally feeling well enough to get on the internet and post this.

I'm very pleased to announce the birth of my daughter, Sarah Michelle, on 8/17 at 1:16 PM. She weighed 7 lbs. 9 oz. and 21 in. at birth. She is beautiful and daddy's little girl :-)

The story of her birth and pictures of my baby daughter below the fold:

Well I had a routine checkup yesterday (I'm in my 37th week if you ask them, my 38th if you ask me) and told my doctor I suspected the little one was still in breech, and she pulled out the ultrasound to verify. Well 'lo and behold, my little girl is now head-down! I had felt her attempting the turning while I was trying to sleep during the hot weather the week before last, but I wasn't sure if she was successful because it still felt like something hard was up in my ribs, but I guess that's her feet now. I can't express how relieved I am that I won't have to schedule a C-section. Doctor was concerned about my amniotic fluids being low, but I drank a whole lot of water and today my fluids were normal and both the fetal nonstress tests came out fine. I also got my disability leave started sooner than I had originally planned because my workplace has gotten really stressful for me and I needed out. So a lot of good things are happening and I'm so excited to meet my little girl!

So I had a quick ultrasound yesterday to check up on baby girl (long story...I had a mild electric shock at work and wanted to make sure she was OK) and the doctor who was monitoring it informed me that my daughter is in a breech position right now.

So I'm through my first trimester, entering crankyland, and I've started to really notice how everyone in the whole world wants to engage me in the total clichefest that is pregnancy advice. Here's an amusing excerpt from a conversation I had with my girlfriend who gave birth in June of last year about this subject: