Brianna Mae Talbert

I could not be happier to announce that Amanda gave birth to Brianna Mae Talbert on April 18 at 9:18 p.m.! Our beautiful new niece weighed 6 pounds, 14 ounces, was 19.5 inches long and already has more hair than I had by my first birthday (must be a Talbert trait).

The first time I met her, I was so excited about holding her that I forgot to take a single picture. I did better at the second visit. Dad has more pictures on his blog.

Not only is the baby perfect and adorable, but her mama is my hero (natural birth, hello)! The whole labor and delivery went like clockwork. I'm sure Amanda will blog the full story at some point. In a nutshell, one minute her water was breaking at PetSmart and eight hours later Brianna was here -- two days before her due date, and perfectly timed to be the best belated (by one day) birthday gift of Mom's life.

Brianna joins Riley as one of Claire's built-in BFFs. I just can't wait to introduce the three of them!