The Inevitable Introduction

Welcome!  My name is Samantha and I am a new mother to a precious, almost 5-month-old baby girl! My little girl, Fenna Mae, is the light of my life!  She is as cute as a button and as sweet as apple pie.  Part of the reason for this blog is for me to be able to document my life as a mom, my children as they grow (Lord willing there are many more to come!), and have a place to put the thousands of pictures I plan on taking (I think my Facebook friends might already have had their fill of Fenna pictures!).  As for me, well I am 26 years old, about 5’ 6” with brown hair and pretty ordinary facial features.  I don’t consider myself very pretty, but I also don’t consider myself ugly (but I do think I married ‘up’ in the looks department!  Go me!).  I used to be of average weight, but after little Fenna was born I’ve been having trouble getting back to the ‘before me’.  I know there’s an expiration date on the time that I can use the excuse that “I just had a baby”, but I’m going to milk that one for as long as possible!  All-in-all, I’m just an average girl.  I don’t yet feel like an adult, but I suppose having a husband, a mortgage, a job in a cubicle, and a new baby definitely makes me one!  I suppose that is something I will have to come to terms with soon!  
So, what is the purpose of all of this information?  Why do you care or want to know anything about me?  Honestly, you probably don’t!  BUT, as a new mommy, I am learning how important it is to have a community of other mommies that you can go to for help, advice, or even just to vent every now and then!  I want to share my very real mommy experiences as well as open up the floor to just talk.  Talk about the hardships, the successes and everything in between.  I want to relate to the experiences of other new mommies and learn from the Super Moms out there!  In the process, I want to paint a very true picture of motherhood and all of the good and bad that come along with it.  Please join me on this journey; I would love to hear from you about your little one!
Since this is my first post and my daughter (it still feels strange to me to say that I have a daughter!) is already almost 5 months, I am going to take the first few posts to 'catch up' on the last few month, so the first few may be a little on the longer side, please bear with me!  I want to begin with Fenna Mae's birth story.  This is mostly for my benefit because I have a HORRIBLE memory (pregnancy side effect??) and I know in a few years a lot of the details will probably escape me, but I don't want to ever forget these moments!
I had a fairly easy pregnancy with absolutely no morning sickness whatsoever.  I enjoyed being pregnant so much that I actually miss it now and am looking forward to the next pregnancy already!  Of course, as everyone says, the last month was a bit trying, I was tired, sore, and had to get up every 10 minutes at night to pee!  Here is one of the last pictures before Fenna Mae arrived:

  
Fenna's due date was 8/20/2013, but she decided to come a bit earlier, and I was definitely ready to meet her!  The night of 8/11/13, a Sunday night, my water broke around 8:30 PM.  It was funny because I had actually been at the hospital earlier that morning thinking that my water had broke, but was sent home because it had not.  Once it did break that night, I had no doubts!  At that point I wasn't having any contractions (that I could feel), so I drove myself and my husband to the hospital, which was only a few minutes from our house.  A little after we arrived I was put on pitocin because I was still not having contractions.  Once the pitocin kicked in though, WOW, there are no words to describe that pain!  I had wanted to try to have a natural birth, but since the pitocin intensifies the contractions I was just not able to handle it and ended up having an epidural...which was AMAZING!  I would still like to try a natural birth in the future, but it was just not in the cards for me this time.  With the epidural I was able to get some naps in throughout the night while we waited.  I had my husband, David, my parents, and my mother-in-law in the room with me throughout the labor process (we kicked them out right before it was time to start pushing so it was just David and I there for the actual birth).  Around 7 AM the next morning I was ready to start pushing.  It was such a surreal experience.  The lights were dimmed, my feet were put up in the air, the doctor with her mask on was standing in front of me, and there were two 'surgery' lights from the ceiling pointed directly on me; I seriously felt like I was in an episode of Grey's Anatomy at that point!  I only had to push for a little over half an hour and Fenna Mae arrived at 7:37 AM on Monday, August 12, 2013.

This was, hands down the most amazing, intense, beautiful, wonderful, crazy experience of my life!  Our family had grown and we immediately couldn't imagine life without our little Fenna Mae.  Of course, next comes the 'I have a baby, I don't know what to do?!?!' stage, but there will be more on that later!  For now, here are some of the first pics of our new family!