Hello Madelyn DeLois Tolle

Well I promised Wendy that once she had the baby I (Ryan) would write the entry about the exciting delivery day.  I suppose I should start with how the day started; first thing this morning I woke up around 4 am and told Wendy that I thought today seemed like good day to have the baby.  She laughed and stated watch today really be it just because you're saying this now (and yes it turns out I do know things). 

Wendy's mother came down the night before to stay with us for the week to help make some of the final preparations and be there for the delivery.  We had decided that since today was her due date we should try to go and walk around the mall to see if we couldn't help move things along.  If you haven't noticed from her entries, everyone around her has been delivering their babies early for the past month, so she had started to lose hope that this might be a smooth and timely arrival as the days have continued to pass by.  So there we are just leaving Macy's and all of a sudden she stops and gasps for air and says "Ryan!" and as I turned to look, she continued with "it's happening" with a wide eyed expression on her face.  With that I took her arm and led her out to our car with her mother covering her from behind. 

From this point all of our knowledge of child birth from our readings and conversations with others led us to believe we had hours before anything dramatic would be happening, but we were so very wrong. In the time it took us from leaving the mall to arriving at our house to grab the bags she had started having contractions at an alarming rate.  A quick dash through the house and a last review of the the checklist and we were off to the hospital.  In this 30 some odd minute car ride she had gone from 8 minute intervals to 4 minute intervals between contractions, with her mother right there at her side every step of the way breathing like an Olympic Lamas coach.  Without sparing any time the nurses looked her over and said I think she's ready to have this baby NOW, and a short 2 hours later we had our Little Baby Tolle in our arms and in our lives for ever.   

Madelyn weighed in at 7 lbs, 8.6 ounces, was a whopping 21 inches long, with hazel eyes, and dirty blond hair.  For those of you who have been following the blog from the beginning, yes, I just lost the weight bet with Wendy and have locked myself in for 10 any-time diaper changes at her discretion.  And for everyone following the blog, here is the long awaited profile photo, please say hello to Ms. Madelyn DeLois Tolle.