Emilie!!!

Before I forget- I am SO sorry I have not picked up my phone for the past 4 days. It isn't because I didn't want to!! In the rush of life after Emilie's birth, we put my jacket (with my cell phone in the pocket) in the washing machine!! So- it died a very wet death... but I'm up and working today, so I am returning to the real world.

More importantly, EMILIE IS HERE!!!

This birth was a lot easier than Madeleine, so I happy to say that I agree with most that giving birth usually gets easier? Well, giving birth and easy shouldn't be in the same sentence, but you know what I mean!

Here are the details for those of you who want to know- but if you don't, just skip to the pictures!!

Wednesday Night: We took a trip to the hospital for some p gel to start my body to go into contractions. Luckily, it started... so it was a night of mild contractions about 5 minutes apart... which should be the time that you go into the hospital, but I didn't feel like they were bad enough.

Thursday Morning: Went into the hospital after taking with my midwife and checked in at around 8 am.

Thursday 8 am-2 pm: Started out with strong contractions, but then they started going away. "No" I said... I don't want to go home. "I think today is the day."

Thursday 2pm: Vitamin P (aka Pitocin or Oxytocin). We started on the lowest dose, and started to rev up.

Thursday 4 pm: Death. Pretty bad. I know some of you have heard this before, but I always thought of it as a marathon, that you can get through it... but once you get to the "transition" stage... all you want to do is die. I wanted to cave and get an epidural, but my midwife suggested that I get into the shower...

Thursday 5 pm: The worst pain imaginable. I don't even want to know what I looked like, but Steve said that I clawed my nails into his arms. It was a back labor- meaning that Emilie was looking down instead of up, so we did most of the labor on my side.

The rest is up to your imagination. I can't believe I did it without an epidural. I really truly and honestly thought I was going to die. I kept on screaming that I couldn't do it. And, after a while, I guess I did it. I was so glad it was over.

We decided her name will be Emilie Christine Leeflang.

Being an only child, I am so touched by having another daughter. Seeing Maddie obsess over her is amazing, and I can't wait for them to grow up together and have eachother for the rest of their lives. Families are beautiful.

Here are a couple of other photos- I haven't taken that many as I've been recovering, but I'll post more soon.

She doesn't really look like Maddie- we think she will have blond hair and blue eyes, but it's only a guess because she doesn't have that much hair or eye lashes...

The little feet.

Here is my favorite little sidekick. She is so excited about "Baby Emi."