Did you just kick me?: She's FINALLY Here!

After waiting seven extra days, enduring over 20 hours of labor, and time in the operating room, Emma Elise finally made her arrival into this world! I started having contractions (finally) at 4:30 am on the 6th. I didn't wake Jeff up for another hour because I wanted to make sure that this was IT! I woke him up about 5:30 and we started timing them. He was really very cute, walking around with the stopwatch. My doctor said to call him when the contractions were 5-6 minutes apart for 2 hours. We were about 5 minutes apart by 8:00 am so he made the call. We got a call back and after talking with the nurse on call, she said to go ahead and drive down to the hospital. Once I checked in, the contractions were about 3 minutes apart. But I was still only at 1-2 cm. They had us walk around the hospital for an hour and then were going to check my progress. I had not eaten since 5:00 pm the night before and one of the hallways we walked down smelled like food. Not good for me! But after that hour, I still hadn't made any progress and there was talk of sending me home. By now the contractions were increasing in severity and my pain tolerance was beginning to wear thin. We walked around my labor and delivery room for another hour and my water broke. Good news. But I was still not making any progress. However, they decided they weren't going to send me home since my water had broken. I'll spare you all of the details of the labor, but I would like to kiss whoever invented the epidural!! About the last hour before the epidural, life was pretty much at a standstill every few minutes when the contractions hit me...until that glorious man arrived to deliver me from the hell that was room 10 on the third floor. Once that epidural went in, I could have hosted a party. Seriously. My mom was there, along with Jeff's mom, my brother and his wife. Jeff's mom left after about an hour since there was no progress. What was happening was that Emma's heart rate was dipping after I would have a contraction which is a problem. They tried moving me from side to side, which would help for a while, but the problem kept coming back. At about 10:00 pm, they mentioned that I may have to have a C Section. Darren and his wife came in and prayed with me, Jeff prayed with me, and so did my mom. Finally at almost 11:30 pm on July 6th, the doctor said they needed to get her out. It was time. There was nothing else they could do. I was terrified and the doctor gently said that she wouldn't have me carry this baby for 9 long months to have a problem at this stage of the game. Jeff asked if they could get Emma out in 30 minutes to ensure she would have her own birthday and the doctor said no problem. Jeff ran to put on scrubs and tell our family that was in the waiting room that I was now having a C Section. They wheeled me down to the OR and got Emma out at 11:40pm. She was 7 lbs, 10.6oz, and was 19 3/4" long. With a ton of hair! Like her Mamma.

After the surgery, Jeff was able to go with the nurse and Emma and the nurse told him to run ahead and get our family. (This is what I was told - I missed several hours as I had the epidural and whatever else they gave me plus time spent in recovery) Jeff's brother and sister in law, my mom, Jeff's mom, my brother, and my sister in law got to see Emma and actually ride in the elevator with her as she was transported to the 4th floor nursery. They watched as she received her first shot and was put in her little crib. My mom said she was the only one in there who had her feet completely stretched out! Those feet were sticking out straight and that tongue was in and out of her mouth.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I was sent to recovery and didn't get up to my room until after 2:00am. We had the cutest sign on the door which Darren had labored over. We had people sign it when they came to visit and we got quite a few comments regarding the "Class of 2030" part. Proud Uncle Darren.

They brought Emma to us finally at about 4:00 am and tired though we were, she was of course welcomed with open arms. We had her to ourselves until about 10:00 the next morning when the visitors started showing up. She met cousins and aunts and uncles and grandparents and friends.

Aunt Sally was one of the first to arrive