THE BABY HAS LANDED. Meet Josie Diana Rothman!

She's here.

So as long as I'm sitting on a plastic donut with my first real cup of coffee in almost a year, I might as well tell you the whole story! As I posted last week, we had decided to induce on Thursday night. Jeff and I had a last supper at Citrus, our favorite restaurant in our old neighborhood on the Upper West Side, and went to Lenox Hill to check in around 9pm. We got settled, and they just gave me a cream to soften my cervix and said we would start the pitocin in the morning.

We watched TV and fell asleep around midnight. Around 3am, I awoke, confused, to a big gush - my water had actually broken on its own! Aahhhh... BGR and I were finally on the same page. I toughed out the contractions with a little light narcotics until about 8 a.m., when my doctor, the nurses, and Jeff, convinced me that at 6 cm, I was not being "wussy" by starting the epidural. Sweet relief. Whoever invented the epidural should go straight to the head of the sainthood list. Not that, as a nice Jewish girl, I should particularly care about that. But I digress. The rest of the day was actually a nice day off. We read the paper, hung out with our families, watched Sex and the City DVDs, and ate popsicles.

By about 4pm, I was to 10 cm. Time to push! Jeff was an amazing coach. After about an hour, we had Josie Diana in our arms. 7 lbs, 1 oz, and 20.75 inches. It wasn't easy, but it wasn't so bad! I would definitely do it again. Unfortunately, I had spiked a fever during the delivery, so as a precautionary measure they put us both on antibiotics and the pediatrician said Josie had to stay in the NICU until Monday (even though I was being discharged Sunday). She couldn't stay in my room, but we visited her for almost every feeding and she was the star of the NICU - both because of her hair and her fast learning at nursing - and of course because of her beauty and personality. One of the dads in the unit asked if I had had her hair "styled" while at the hospital. Of course, it WAS the Upper East Side, but I assured him I had not.

Unbelievably, around noon yesterday I got an even better present than the gorgeous earrings Jeff gave me for carrying and bearing his seed - the news that hospital policy had changed and asymptomatic newborns in our situation could be discharged after 48 hours instead of 72! So she got to come home with us yesterday - thank god, because I had already been crying all day at the thought of leaving her.

So we're home, and on Day 2. I am feeling pretty good, a little beaten up and pretty tired, but we're happy to be home and falling completely in love with our daughter.

Thanks everyone for your thoughts, good wishes, calls and wonderful e-mails. We look forward to introducing JDR around soon!