Happy birthday baby girl!

So Miss Emma surprised us a week early! Drew was sick and throwing up everywhere. We finally get Drew settled into new pajamas and I laid down in bed to go to sleep...and my water breaks. I couldn't believe it. I was in denial for about five minutes before I realized this was the real deal and this baby was coming that night!

Luckily it was a Saturday night and Lauren was visiting from NJ. So she and Dad came over to sleep at our house while we went to the hospital. I felt badly leaving Andrew and Ryan without saying goodbye but I didn't want to wake them.

The doctors had to wait 8 hours after I ate dinner before they could start the c section, which put the surgery at 3:30am at the earliest. So Bill tried to sleep in an uncomfortable recliner and I rested between contractions....which means nothing. You can't sleep while in labor! I feel asleep between one of the contractions and it was a rude awakening! Contractions are so hard to describe: no words do it full justice.
At 5am they were ready for the c section. It was a strange surgery. There was a lot of cutting and Dr Friedel had to push down on the outside of my belly, trying to reposition the baby. I was nervous, wondering why it was not straight forward like my previous c sections.
Then Bill hears Dr Friedel softly say "happy birthday baby girl". He turned to me and said "it's a girl!". I hadn't heard the doctor so I asked loudly "It's a girl??" Dr Friedel responds, "It's either a girl or a boy without a penis."

We had a girl!

I was so surprised. So happy she was born and seemingly healthy. It was overwhelming though. The rest of the surgery took over an hour (longer than expected) so I wasn't able to relax and enjoy the moment for several hours. Even in recovery, they had Emma in the nursery. I decided to concentrate on feeling better, even though I was dying to see the baby, hold her, meet this little one who had been making me uncomfortable for months.

This time, I concentrated on doing what I could, when I could. So in recovery, I recovered. With Emma, I'd enjoy her etc. When she was in the nursery, I rested.

Recovery was ok. I tried to take it easy and not push it. Post partum depression was easiest of all. I didn't want Drew and Ryan to be scared to see me crying for no reason so I tried very hard not to cry in front of them (crying in the shower became my release).

Overall, it was a good recovery and now it's onto being the parent of three children!