Welcome Emery Grace!

After 30+ hours of labor, she's finally here and we couldn't be more in love! Let me share a little of my labor story...my contractions started around 11:00 pm on the 24th--they were very mild and didn't hurt, but I still couldn't sleep at all that night. Ethan didn't go to work the next day and we went about like normal until my contractions got to be about 10 minutes apart around 2:00pm. The grandparents had been put on alert and were making their way up. We went to see the doctor around 3:30 and he confirmed that I was officially in labor and 3 cm dilated. My contractions were no longer mild at this point and the doctor gave me the choice to go over to the hospital or to go home and labor it out until they were coming every 5minutes. We went home for a few hours and I squeezed poor Ethan's hand off with each and every contraction until about 8:00. We headed to the hospital, but first we stopped at Taco Bell so Ethan could grab a quick bite--nothing like having a contraction in the line for the drive through!
We checked into the hospital and when they checked me around 9:00 I was only 4 cm. I was pretty bummed--only 1 cm after 5 hours of pain! I decided to get out of bed and walk around with Ethan to try to speed things along. We cruised around the maternity ward for an hour, stopping every few minutes for my contractions. Long story short, when they checked me again I hadn't made any progress, so I decided it was time for the epidural. Best decision I ever made! I was finally able to get some much needed sleep (it was about midnight by this time).
I was finally 10 cm around 6:00am, I started pushing around 7:00 and out she came at 7:54am! They put her on my chest and she just stared at me for a minute, then she pooped all over me and started crying! She weighed 7 lbs, 7 oz and measured 19.75 inches long. She is the sweetest baby girl and we are so in love with her. Here are some pictures from her first few days.