That morning...

The morning you were born was the most exciting, weirdest, nervous morning your Daddy and I have ever experienced. When you get older and get to wake up to all the presents that Santa Claus has brought you, and you're sooooo excited you just can't sleep at all the night before, then you'll almost understand just how excited we were to go to the hospital to have you.

Dr. Freeman was your doctor, and he called us the day before to see if we wanted to come in Friday morning, May 22, at 6:30 a.m. to be induced. I had to call your Daddy, Poppa Jeff, and Grandma Debbie to see if we should do it then. We all decided to go ahead and plan to have you on May 22, 2009, even though your due wasn't until May 29. It was Memorial Day weekend and all your family from Glennville would be able to come up to Lawrenceville and see you the day you were born, which was very important to me.

This is what I looked like at 39 weeks pregnant, after gaining 31 pounds with you, on the way out of the door to the hospital. Your daddy and I had already drafted a text to all of our friends in our phones that we were planning to send out when we were on the way to the hospital. That morning at 6:00 a.m, we were so excited to hit "send" and let everyone know you were going to be born that day!

We checked into the hospital around 6:30 a.m., and they hooked me up to pitocin to start my labor. I DEFINITELY received an epidural, which didn't hurt as bad as I thought it would. After that, it was close to 7:30 a.m. and we had 10 hours of waiting, visiting, napping, and watching T.V. before you arrived.

Your Granddaddy and Granny Ewing came early that morning to wait at the hospital. So did your Great-grandparents "Ma Ma and Da Da", your great-aunt Sandy, and then around 11:30 a.m., your Grandma Debbie, Poppa Jeff, Aunt Jessica, and Uncle Jacob arrived. They couldn't wait to meet you!

The day was pretty laid back and mellow. Your daddy and I didn't get much sleep the night before because we were so excited to see you the next day, so we tried to nap a little in the hospital. Since I was hooked up to all these machines, I couldn't eat anything all day, except for ice. We had another visitor that day, your self-proclaimed Uncle Cliff! (He's not really your uncle, though!) He wanted you to be born on your real due date because that was his birthday. Cliff is a Gwinnett County Fire Fighter and one of our best friends. He had to work that night and wasn't going to be able to see you, so he stopped by before you were born.

Around 4:30 p.m., I knew the time was getting closer for you to be here. I asked your Aunt Jessie for my makeup bag, and decided to 'put my face on'. I wasn't in any pain, except for some mild contractions on my right side where the epidural didn't work as well, so I wanted to get 'prettied up' for when you arrived. At 5:00 p.m. I started pushing, and at 5:25 p.m. you were born!

Your Daddy cut your umbilical cord and they took you straight over to the nurses for clean up. You weighed 6 lbs even and measured 19 inches long. You were a tiny thing! (Sometimes I wish you still weighed 6 lbs and maybe my left wrist wouldn't be hurting so much from carrying you around.) Your Daddy got to hold you first, which I was OK with:) He asked me, "Do you want to hold her?" I thought, "What kind of question is that...and what do you think?" Of course I wanted to hold you...duh! You were all wrapped up and kinda gooey from the gel the nurses put on your eyes, but you were PERFECT! Our lives have never been the same since then.

We called your Grandmas and Aunt Jessie and asked if they wanted to meet you.....

(and tomorrow I'll tell you what happened!)