She's here!!

One of her first pictures!

Emerson Jane Goerlich arrived Tuesday, January 17, 2012. Weighing in at 7lbs 1oz, and 21" long, she just needed 1 extra day to finish cooking before she made her entrance into the world! Seeing as she currently has her days & nights mixed up,I figured I'll try to take advantage of some midnight feedings to update you all on the story of Emmys arrival, but it might take awhile to get it all down!

I was a little bit bummed when my due date came & went with no signs of labor approaching. That night our cousin Nicole was kind enough to bring us dinner (yummy veggie chili), so the 3 of us enjoyed a nice dinner & visit before I settled into bed. I was up & down all night with an upset stomach, which I attributed to the chili (sorry Nicole!), but then at about 5am I realized that my water had broke! It was a "slow leak", if you will, so it took me a few minutes to realize what was happening, and I actually went back to bed. But then I started having contractions, and realized that my water had in fact broken, so I called the doctor & they said head to the hospital! So we pretty much woke up at about the same time we would normally get up to go to work (6am). It was very considerate of Emmy to give us, well at least give daddy, a full night's sleep before making her entrance! We got to the hospital around 6:45am, and were in & out of triage in about 20 minutes. They confirmed that I was dilated to 3cm, and that my water had in fact broke, and they put me through to labor & delivery. Once in L&D we sat tight for a little while; I got an epidural after about an hour or so, once the contractions got a little more intense. It took the anesthesiologist a couple tries to get the epidural in, which was not fun, but once it was in I didn't feel the contractions at all! They gave me about an hour & a half to see how I progressed without any medicine, but since my water had broken, and when they checked me I was still only 3cm they gave me some pitocin (sp?) to help things along. Within another hour or so I had progressed to 10cm, and she made her way down pretty quickly! I ended up only having to push for about 20 minutes, and then she was here! It was such an amazing experience, I really can't convey it all in words, sorry!!

Meeting mommy for the first time!

Meeting Daddy for the first time!

After coming out, Emmy spent some time under the warmer to bring up her temp and to give the doctors a chance to check her out, and once they gave her the OK they brought her over to me. We put her in my shirt for some "skin to skin" bonding and it was just incredible to finally meet this little peanut that has been growing in my belly for the last 9 months!!

After some bonding time for just the three of us, Dan went & got the grandparents, who were beyond excited to meet Emerson! We had a short visit in the L&D room, then it was time to move to the mom & baby floor. Unfortunately, I was pretty nauseous, and I had to be moved up on a stretcher. In the meantime, they wanted to take Emmy up to the nursery to get her washed up, so daddy went with her, and grandma waited with me. Emmy wasn't the biggest fan of her first bath, but the nurse did give her a fun hairdo after!

Bath time is NOT fun!

Stylin with a faux hawk!

After the bath, the nurse & daddy brought Emmy back to our room, and we settled in for some family time. She also got to meet & spend more time with her grandparents, anut & uncles, great aunt and great grandma! We made it through our first night together, and the next day we had a bunch more visitors. That night I started to feel really bad, and it turned out I had a spinal headache from the epidural. Long story short, I ended up having to stay in the hospital another day, and they ended up giving me a blood patch to help get rid of the spinal headache. Friday morning after getting the blood patch I felt 100% better, and we were super excited to head home as a family of 3! It was so nice to get home and to put on normal clothes/pj's and to just settle in with Emmy. However it was kind of strange to see Emmy in "real clothes"; it made her look so grown up already!!

Getting ready to head home!!

After arriving home, we've had lots of support and help from our families, and we're so grateful for that! It really does take a village, and we are the luckiest to have such supportive family and friends helping us with Emmy!