Happy First Birthday, Emma!

This very night, one year ago, I started feeling stronger contractions. They were consistant for awhile and then were not at all. So, by midnight, I decided to go to bed. I told Kevin, who was working in the dining room, that this could be the night!

Sure enough, about an hour later, I woke up with much stronger contrations. We called my parents shortly there after and told them to hurry over to stay with Lea. Immediatley after hanging up the phone, we knew we didn't have much time (my folks live 30 min away). So, we called a friend to hurry over. Amie got there and we rushed to the hospital.

By now, it was a little after 2am. As I sat in the waiting room, Kevin was checking me into the hospital nearby. My contractions were very strong and about a minute apart. When the front receptionist noticed, she immediatley called to get me a room. Nurses showed up with a wheelchair, but I wanted to walk. I got about halfway to the room (which was very close) and had to stop for a huge contraction. I could see the door to my room.... like I said, it was close, but it seemed so far away! I made it to the doorway and another strong contraction hit me. I told the nurses I needed to push! They were calm and told me to get on the bed so they could "check" me. Just as I was about to sit on the bed, I felt like I needed to pee. So, I went to the restrooom.... no pee. I slowly made it back to the bed and climbed up. It was very uncomfortable sitting. Just as a nurse was about to "check" me, my water broke and I was pushing!

Kevin didn't even get me checked into the hospital and my midwife hadn't even arrived. After a few pushes, Emma was born!

Emma Margaret born on May 1st at 2:49am

(Here's the original birth story that tells what happened right after she was born. And, some update posts about her while we were still at the hospital are here and here.)

Emma has quite possibly completed our family... she is such a beautiful blessing!

Happy Birthday to our little cuddle bunny!!