SHE'S HERE!!!!!

Yes, you read/heard correctly. IT'S A GIRL! Now for some cute pictures!

Yeah the date on the camera was broken, and I didn't know.... and there's no way to remove the date! lol... but there she is shortly after birth.

And I'll get some closer ones up soon. But I'm really eager to write about the entire labor and birth.

Okay so I posted while in those early stages. Basically Sunday morning, after not sleeping at all I started to have some cramping. It didn't hurt that bad, but I noticed it was kind of patterned. I woke up Aaron around 7 and let him know. For about 5 hours they stayed about 4 minutes apart. They were very intense at all. At the time, I kind of thought they were, but now I know they were practically nothing! But we went to the hospital around 3, because I wasn't sure what to do. The contractions were staying really regular, I had some bleeding, and I wanted to stay home as long as possible, but I was also really curious, was this is? Was I already dialated to like an 8?! What was going on down there!! So I thought we could go to the hospital and in like an hour they could say, Yup, you're in labor, but you're only like 3cm, so it's okay if you wanna go home and come back, or whatever you want. Boy was I dreaming! We ended up being in triage for 4 and a half hours! It was really frustrating. They told me I could stay, even though I was only 3cm dialted, but I told them I would rather go home and labor at home as long as possible. The nurse reeeeeeeally didn't want me to do this. So she took her time letting us go. Of course by the time we were leaving the contractions started to get a lot worse. But around 7:30 we went to Aaron's mom and dad's so we could eat some dinner. Then we went home and I took a bath and a shower. Things were starting to get a lot more intense. I needed Aaron for every contraction. He was amazing, holding me, telling me how great I was doing, etc. Meanwhile my mom was flying in from New Jersey. She was going to land at 11:30. By the time 11:30 rolled around the contractions were really painful and I was ready to go to the hospital. But we waited unti my mom got there around midnight. As soon as she got there, we headed to the hospital. This time triage was so fast! They told me I was about 6-7cm! What a relief to hear that! They got me straight to a room, and my nurse was soooooooooo wonderful. I wanted to labor in the tub they had at the hospital. They have special monitors for when you're in the water, for baby and mom, but they weren't working right. Instead of telling me, "Oh sorry you can't use the tub since these monitors aren't working" she just took them off and let me be in the tub as long as I wanted. IT WAS HEAVENLY! I was able to relax through the contractions so well with the warm water and Aaron. After four hours they started to get more intense, and I was pretty sure I was in transition. The contractions were so incredibly intense. I was feeling like I was going to throw up, and I was shaking like crazy. Aaron was sooo amazing helping me through this. Well the nurse came to check me. I was sure I was like 8 or 9 cm. But no. I was "maybe" 8, then checked again and more like a 6. I tried to keep positive. I've read stories like this, where the nurse was wrong, or all of a sudden you go from 6 to 7. So I decided to get out of the tub and walk around. At this point I had been in labor for about 26 hours or so. I also hadn't slept in 48. My water also hadn't broken. So they were going to break my water. But I was petrified I couldn't handle it. The contractions were already so intense, I was so tired. So I asked if an epidural could help speed things up, if I was more relaxed. My amazing nurse was like, "You are doing so amazing. You are so in control of these contractions. You're doing great. Are you sure?" That was so wonderful to hear!! Anyway, I'm getting really long winded and I want to go hold my baby so I'll wrap things up here. After praying, talking to nurse and anesthesologist, we decided it would be best to get the epidural, break my water and see what happens. BEST DECISION! I was actually able to sleep for like 20 minutes! The other two hours I was just resting. Aaron also got to sleep. Around 10am they told me I could get ready to start pushing. All I can say is it was the most amazing experience. I had no clue how incredibly hard you had to push! I was praying my heart out between each contraction for super human strength. At 10:30 she was sooo close. They told me by 11 I'd have my baby. I couldn't believe it. The doctor came in and told me we'd do all we could to avoid a tear and it looked good. I only tore a little bit (2 stitches). And he held her up and said, "Well what do we have daddy?" And I looked, and it was all so overwhelming. I heard Aaron say girl, and I was just bawling. They put her right on me, and I wouldn't give her up. The nurses were waiting to clean her and weigh her, but I made them wait. I needed those moments to hold her and fall in love. It was so incredible. And now I need to get to my baby.