and without further ado....

let me introduce miss emmeline kay browne.  and let me just say wow.  i could go on and on about how incredible this whole thing has been, but i think the little lady may wake up soon, so i want to write the story of her birth really quickly.

saturday, november 6, we woke up and decided to go to the gypsy picnic fest down at auditorium shores.  basically, austin has a plethora of gourmet food served out of trailers, and they were all in one place with taster menus and stuff.  so we drove to w&d's and walked over (at this point, i was all about walking as much as possible).  well, the fest ended up being kind of a bust (we had to wait in insane lines for food and i was too hungry for that), so we walked over to a restaurant and had a great lunch with w&d.  walked back to their place and by then it was around 2:30 and the lsu vs. bama game was about to come on.  i told justin i would rather be at home as i had started having some pretty painless contractions during lunch, but i wanted to see if they were going to go anywhere and i wanted to be at home for that.

so, we get home and watch some football and hang out.  at 4:30, i sat down on the bed and my water broke in a slow leak.  i wasn't sure that was what it was at first, but i was sure it wasn't pee, so i called my practice.  liane, my favorite midwife, was on call, and she said to just hang out and see what happened.  she said first time moms usually took 10-20 hours once contractions really started and mine hadn't even started at this point, so she advised me to rest and eat and to call if i had questions or if things changed or whatever.

at around 7:30 or 8, jb and i took a ride to pick up sandwiches and an oreo milkshake as well as some snacks for the hospital and gas for the car.  my contractions had started picking up a little, but were still anywhere from 9-20 minutes apart and not super painful, just more present than they had been.  we got home, ate, and i laid down to watch more football and try to rest.  within 30 minutes or so, the contractions started picking up to about 7-12 minutes apart and they were more painful and progressively so with each one.  i got in the tub and that helped with the pain.  at this point, i kind of lost track of time, but i know over the course of the next period of time, my contractions got to about 3-5 minutes apart and i could not even begin to talk through them.  justin called my parents around 9 or 9:30 and we told them to rest up and then come to austin early the next morning because we'd have a baby by sunday afternoon.  at 10:30, i told justin it was time to go to the hospital and i called liane to let her know.

the ride to the hospital was insane.  i hurt so badly and i was clutching justin's arm as he drove us there.  we got to the hospital probably between 11 and 11:30 (it's not that far, but jb had to pack all our stuff in between me needing him to hold me up through pretty much every contraction).  they got us into a room, and i changed into a gown and began pacing back and forth.  liane checked me and i was 4cm and 90% effaced when we got there.  throughout the entire thing, i could not sit still.  i paced and pedaled my feet and shuffled around.  people kept suggesting that i sit on my ball or get in the bed, but i was not interested in that at all.  i did spend about an hour and a half in the shower which was awesome.

the room was dark and peaceful and the nurse or liane would come in intermittently to check emme's heartbeat, etc.  that was the hardest part because i was not interested in being still.  anyway....lots of pain and intensity and swear words later, i am feeling like i have to push and it is insane.  i grabbed justin's chest and told him i couldn't do it and i wanted the epidural.  i was freaking out.  so i climb into the bed and liane comes in a couple minutes later to check me.  and she says "you're all the way there, it's time to start pushing".  so.  at that point, i was so relieved to have something to do and to be able to actually do what i was feeling like doing, so that was awesome.

the pushing lasted about 30 minutes and it was crazy but not as bad as i expected.  it was sort of an out-of-body experience, but i had justin on my right leg and the nurse on my left and liane at the bottom of the bed.  i was on my left side, which was great because my tail bone didn't get in the way.  when she started crowning, the nurse was like oh my gosh look at all that hair!  and then her head was on its way out and jb grabbed my hand so i could feel it.  the nurse tried to stop it because she thought it was too soon, but i got my hand down there and felt her head and then her whole body fly out and justin, liane and i all lifted and put her on my belly.  i thought i could see that she was a boy, but it was the umbilical cord and justin moved it aside and said it's a little girl.  it was insane and amazing.  she got to hang out on my belly until the umbilical cord stopped pulsing, and then while i delivered the placenta and got stitched up.  she was on me really for almost 2 hours before they took her to check her out and bathe her and all that.

mom and dad arrived within about an hour of her birth (thankfully they didn't listen to us and came right away).  so, from the time my water broke until she was born was a total of 11 hours.  insane.  she weighed 7 lbs, 14 oz and was 21 inches long.  her head was 14 inches.  she passed all her tests and we were able to head home within 36 hours, which has been incredible.

anyway...this isn't the most well-written post ever, but i just wanted to get the timeline down.  i need to write about what's been happening since we got home, but i am going to go feed this little monkey.  everything about her is perfect and i cannot believe how much i love her.  she is nursing like a champ and every minute with her is the best thing i've ever experienced.