Emma Lou makes her debut!

Wow! The past few days have been the most terrifying, amazing, incredible of our lives thus far.

Sunday, April 3: Jonathan and I came to the hospital for an induction at 11am. It was a little painful, but in the end we were sent home. I had only dilated to 3cm and was not having consistent contractions. We were disappointed, but I just wanted to go home. We got home at 7:30pm and around 9:30pm I was in so much pain that we immediately went back to the hospital. I had dilated to 8 in the few short hours that I was at home. We were taken immediately to labor and delivery and thank God for Dr. Church, the anesthesiologist. I love epidurals. However, once we got the epidural, the labor slowed down. My contractions were getting further apart and Emma was not making her way down the birth canal.

Monday, April 4: My doctor was not happy with the lack of progress my body was making and also, the fact that Emma was face up. She told us that a c-section was going to be the way to go. I took a deep breath and went with it. At that point, J and I were most concerned with getting her out safely. The doctors were getting set up by time I got to the OR not 15 minutes after the decision had been made. They were listening to Beyonce, which oddly put me at ease. Within minutes, our Emma was out and crying. The took her to the nursery and her proud daddy followed. She was 8 pounds, 6 ounces and 21 inches long. She was born at 5:36 am which was easily the best minute of my life. I got to see her once we went to recovery. She was none to happy with the entire 'being born' process. Once I got her I tried feeding, but that proved to be difficult when your entire chest has no feeling in it. The rest was a blur, but we got back to our room and things started to settle down until Mama got really sick and Emma had to go back to the nursery because she kept barfing up blood. Needless to say, it wasn't the best recovery, but I was happy once I woke up and got my Emma back. The night wasn't bad as she really didn't eat too much. And J and I were so happy that our baby girl had arrived that we didn't care. My husband is so amazing and wonderful and patient. He makes sure she and I have everything we need, even if we wake him up. Aunt Heather was our first visitor, followed by Grandma and Grandpa Needham. We had to halt visitors after that due to my illness, but Aunt Tabby and Brenton came later that afternoon to see her.

Tuesday, April 5: Great day! Grandpa Needham, GG, Grandma Needham, and Aunt Heather made appearances. Emma has been eating all day and very alert.

Overall, I am so in love. I can't even describe the emotions that I've been feeling. I am so blessed to have a healthy baby girl and an amazingly wonderful husband. I feel complete in a whole new way and am so grateful to God for the gifts He's bestowed on us. It also is so humbling to know how many people love us and wish us well!

I will add pictures and more details as I remember them :) Right now, my priority is Emma and Jonathan, but I do want to share and remember these past few days!