Happy Birthday Sweet Baby Girl!

Well, she's here!! Tatum Emily was born Saturady June 2nd at 11:21 a.m. weighing 7 lbs, 15 oz and was 20 inches long. She is by far the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. I went into labor on Friday night on my own. I started having contractions about 5:30 p.m. and they felt different that the Braxton Hicks. We started timing them and at about 7:30 we called the on-call Dr. to see if we should go in. She said we were good to go in so we arrived at the hospital about 8:30 or so. I was in OB triage for a few hours, they were busy that night. The nurse checked me when I got there and I was 4 cm and she told me I needed to walk the halls. They like to see a change in the cervix before admitting and since they were busy I am guessing there wasnt a nurse for me in L & D. So we walked for a while. The nurse told me that anesthesia wanted to talk to me and I needed to go into my triage room. He came in and told me that he reviewed my chart and since I was not off my bloodthinners for at least 7 days, he could not give me an epidural. I sat there and stared at him like he was joking. I thought he had to be joking. Anyone who knows me knows my pain threshhold is non-existant. I asked him my options and he said, IV pain meds was it. C-section was out of the question as I would have to be put under general anesthesia and more than likely need blood. At first my initial reaction was to cry hysterically and tell everyone in the room with me that I couldnt do it. Then I managed to wrap my head around the idea knowing that I had no choice and go on. I had one dose of Stadol at about 6 cm or so and it lasted about an hour. After that, I had a 2nd dose but it did nothing. I guess this drug is known for only working for one or two doses and then not working any more. I was able to relax for that hour though and try to gear up for what was to come. It was awful for a good part of it but I reached in somewhere inside myself and found strength I never knew I had. Once it was over, I forgot about the pain. I forgot about all of it and just stared at this beautiful little girl and knew instantly it was so worth it. Every ounce of it. I also had the most amazing team in my room. Not only was my nurse so super great, my Dr. who was not on call that weekend came in just to deliver her for us. It was so awesome! Also my "coaches" Josh, my mom, Pam and Kim were absolutely amazing too. I could have never done it without them and hope they know that. I am so proud of Josh, he stayed coherant, helped me push and even cut her cord!!!! I have the most amazing husband. Anyway, Tatum was great, APGARS were 9 and 9. We are home now and adjusting to this new life and trying to help our other children (the dogs) adjust as well. We will continue to post, hoping for daily at first now that we will have such great things to post about. To those of you who have called and we havnt called back yet, its not that we dont love you or dont want to talk, we are just tired and trying to adjust. We will call you soon. Also for those of you who didnt get phone calls, its not that we dont love you either! :) I never realized how crazy things get and when you have 4 hours of sleep in 48 hours, you kind of lose some of your brain. We hope to chat with everyone soon and rest assured we will call everyone back! :) We love you all and cant wait for you all to meet our baby girl. I now understand why they call it The Miracle of Life.

*Ok, something is wrong with blogger and its taking about 5 minutes per photo so upload so this is it for now, we have some poopie pants to change. I am also uploading to Kodak easy share a ton of pics so that anyone can order prints if they would like to. I will come back on and post that link as soon as they are done uploading. Sorry for the lack of pics. :) Will be back on shortly so try again!