String of 9 Missed Periods Ends Spectacularly!

Hello Everyone...Brian here.
On Monday, Shara had an appointment with the Midwife and it was decided that Shara would be induced on Wednesday morning because the baby's due date was December 9th.
So, after an eventful trip to Walmart and some trash TV to celebrate the two-day-away induction, Shara's H2O broke at 11:30pm Monday night. It seems the baby had her own plans. A call to the doctor's office and we were told to wait until 7 Tuesday morning to head in and proceed with the events. Again, the baby had her own schedule and the contractions grew closer as Shara and Brian watched infomercial after infomercial (seriously, how many things can that guy sell?) in anticipation of the big day. At 6am Shara decided they needed to act "now" rather than at 7 as her contractions were 7 minutes then 3 minutes and then 10 minutes apart. She called the hospital and off we went.
The nurse led us to our delivery room. Shara changed into her johnny and climbed into bed. "One or two centimeters" the nurse informed us. Shara was not pleased because she felt that this meant a car ride home but the nurse reassured her that she was more than welcome to stay. "Great" Shara replied. " I need some medicine!"
The sun rose in the sky. Clouds passed overhead. The contractions increased as did the back spasms. Dilation ensued as the Grandmothers-to-be paced in the hallway, then listened at the door, were yelled at about "privacy", and finally sequestered to a room where they pretended to knit.
Two doors away, Shara opted for the epidural which helped for a while but not really to her expectations. It seems her body only wanted to be numb on the right side. Brian rubbed her back with minimal success.
At about 4:10 Shara and the baby decided that the best way to decrease the back pain would be to push. The midwife concurred and off they went. After an hour and thirteen minutes of diehard pushing a head-followed by a body-emerged. Shara and Brian named the joining of these two Madeleine. There was a decent amount of cursing but not enough to embarass.
Madeleine slept very well through the night and has not fussed at any great length. Holy crap she has a lot of hair. Shara is doing great! Brian is happy.
Enjoy the photos!