The Complete Parrish Clan: WELCOME Emma Rose Parrish!

We have relocated our 'Littlest Parrish' Blog because we have a new 'littlest Parrish!' Emma Rose Parrish joined the Parrish clan a little early on Wednesday, September 30th at 6:40am! She weighed in at a petite 6 lbs. 3 ozs. and 19 inches long. She was two and a half weeks early, which caught us a little off guard.

Here's the story... in brief:

I woke up at 3am, feeling a little funny, and decided I just needed to walk around a bit. I thought my stomach felt a little upset, but didn't really think anything of it. I walked out to the living room, where Robin was still up working on his next book (due out July of 2010... couldn't resist a little publicity there). He asked what I was doing up, and I just said I needed to walk around a bit. Neither of us thought anything of it just then.

I made my way back to bed, and was laying down when I realized I was probably having contractions and they were an alarming 5 minutes apart. Gulp, I thought... this might be active labor! What happened to the first part of labor?!!

So, I came out of the bedroom again and told my husband what was happening and he immediately called our Doctor. She suggested it might be false labor and that I should drink a bunch of water and if that didn't help, I might want to come in in an hour or so.

Shortly after hanging up the phone, the contractions started getting MUCH worse, so Robin shifted into overdrive and started packing bags for himself and Evan... who needed to go to Grandma's house. So, by about 4:15am, we were all loaded in the car and heading to Grandma's first, then the hospital. The contractions were now about 3 minutes apart and beyond intense.

We dropped Evan off and skidded into the Emergency Room. They took their good old time admitting me (ok, it wasn't so bad, but as a pregnant woman in SUPER ACTIVE LABOR (note the all caps), it seemed like a lifetime.

Eventually, we made it up to the Labor and Delivery section and I got deposited into the same room I was in when I had Evan (a cool little coincidence). The nurse was also taking her good old time (ok, she, too, was pretty efficient, it just seemed like a horribly long time, since I couldn't have any drugs until she was done).

Skipping ahead in the not too far future, the anesthesiologist arrived JUST in time for the epidural (I LOVE that man), and followed shortly by the our favorite doctor, Dr. Mattern... two short pushes later (and did I mention I couldn't really feel my legs or anything else by this point? Did I also mention that I LOVE that anesthesiologist?)... Emma arrived!

In the meantime there, we had called my parents, who were on their way down... they didn't quite make the actual birth, but did make it the DAY of her birth. We had visits from Pastor Roland, Cher, and help from Aunt Susan. She brought my bag I had packed in advance, but had mistakenly left the house without because I thought Robin had it and he thought I had it. Ooops! She also brought Krispy Kremes for us. YAY!

Our parents and Evan all arrived at the same time and we also had visits from Andrew and Krista and Carolyn, a Chaplain from the church.

I wanted to write this down because it's all mostly a blur. Crazy stuff... it happening so fast. I guess Emma was in a hurry to make her appearance. We're glad he did. She's the sweetest little girl you will ever see, and Evan is still adjusting to her, but we think he's the best big brother ever, too!

Here are a few photos... I'm slacking a bit on the blogging, but don't worry, we'll do our best to stay up to date with Emma's achievements and continue with Evan's... who, by the way, is beginning to talk up a storm! Go EVAN!