Introducing... Elise!

It was a dark and stormy night... no, seriously, it was. Meredith, aka Momma, had been feeling what she thought were just cramps for a few hours and now, around 10:30 PM they began to intenisfy with a fervor. We realized at that moment that Holy Doodie! (censoring our speech now) those aren't just cramps - she was in labor! Between 10:30 and 12:30 AM, there was no mistaking that these "cramps" were full blown transition/active labor pains. There were other clues -- the vomiting, the intense heat radiating from her body, the 'don't touch me' and the tears. At 12:45, Marty, aka Daddy, got the go ahead to head into the hospital. As Momma was rolled into the delivery room, her water broke in the wheelchair. Both Momma and Daddy settled in for what they were sure was going to be a long battle and the midwife (Nicole) came in to examine her.

Sidenote: Nicole had been pretty lax on the phone when the panicky first-time Mom and Dad called at twelve-thirty asking if they could come in yet. She said they could come, but seemed to think it was still much too early. Upon the examination, she was astonished. Why, you ask? Because Momma who had only been in "real labor pain" for four hours (from 9:30 to now 1:30 AM) was fully dialated, the baby's head was crowning and she was ready to push!!!!! This lax midwife then exclaimed that, had we waited another 1/2 hour to come in to the hospital, this would have been a home birth. No doodie!

Needless to say Daddy was psyched and Momma, well, she asked, ever so sweetly, of the outgoing midwife... "Does that mean I can't have any drugs?" The answer was, sadly for Momma, silence. (No.) The Doctor, Miriam Harden prepared Momma to push. Everyone took up their positions... Nurse on the right holding her hand, midwife next to her holding her right leg, Dr. Harden down low, like Johnny Bench (as Cosby would say) and Daddy holding the left leg and helping Momma push with his other hand behind her neck. So without any drugs (not even a freakin Tylenol!), without any mental preparation for a June baby, without even a stinkin' IV or time to completely register into the hospital and with all in their positions, Momma pushed...and pushed...and pushed...and made the tiniest scream/moan and voila! At 2:12 AM on June 30, 2006, Elise Lawler Molloy was brought into this world at 6 lbs., 14 oz., 20 1/2 inches long, with bright blue eyes and strawberry blonde hair and two parents who were happier in that moment than they had ever been before. Momma was healthy... Ellie was healthy and Daddy was elated.