D-Day - October 21, 2008

3:30am, October 21, 2008
The car is packed and we're on the way to the hospital. It was a bumpy drive - my contractions had definitely started and they were close together - like 2 minutes apart.

3:45am, October 21, 2008
Josh, being completely calm, cool and collected, pulls up to the Emergency door (not where the ambulances park, but the other door) As I'm getting out and walking to the admissions desk I remind Josh to go to the car to get the papers. Of course someone was being admitted at that very second so I decide to rest my head on the counter and the admissions person sees me and asks me what I'm in for. When I tell her LABOR, she tells me to go straight to the 3rd floor. At this point I'm not thinking about Josh, so I find the elevator and press 3 only to see Josh running and grabbing for the closing elevator door. The nurse on the elevator catches it in time so luckily Josh is with me as we WALK to the maternity wing (yes, thanks for not offering a wheel chair to the woman in labor!)

I think I started taking off my clothes before I even got into our room. I would consider myself a very modest person and remember people saying that all modesty goes out the window when you have a child. That is definitely TRUE. I could have cared less who saw me. I just wanted to get the show on the road!

My contractions continued to be intense and only 2 minutes apart. Luckily Josh and I had taken Lamaze classes in preparation for a natural delivery. I'm so thankful we took those classes because Josh coached me on my breathing and helped keep me as focused and calm as possible. He was amazing!! I was definitely not the type that wanted to sit on the ball or in bed. I could not sit still. The pressure was just too great.

After a few breakdowns and declarations that I couldn't do it, where were the drugs, etc., somehow I didn't give in (I think it's because it was so quick, I didn't have time to give in!) At some point Josh remembered that our car was parked in the emergency drive way and the security guard came to our room to retrieve our keys. Can you imagine that happening in Dallas? Our bags, the cameras, the Texas soil from our grandmothers' gardens (we were going to throw it under the bed so she would be born on Texas soil), everything that we had packed for the delivery was in our car. If we had been in Dallas I guarantee you that it would have been towed and all of our possessions stolen.

In the meantime, Josh called my mom to let her know that I was in labor (my mom's flight was at 6:15 central time so we knew she was on her way to the airport).

Before I knew it my doctor was there and it was time to push. I pushed for 45 minutes and after 3 hours and forty-nine minutes of labor we welcomed our precious baby girl! I remember thinking how surreal it all was. I was holding my baby in my arms! She was absolutely the most beautiful baby I had ever seen! What a miracle!

Here are the first pictures of our new family. The pictures were taken by our wonderful Labor & Delivery nurse on HER camera!