She's Out!

The story of Emerson's birth, by her mom:

She's out! I went into labor last wed eve around 10ish- unsure of whether i was really in labor. I'd also had cramps the eve before but they stopped by the following am. Well- wed eve they got stronger and closer. I took a bath and tried to sleep, but mostly rested and walked a bit around the house. at 5am we went downstairs to eat breakfast and afterward it really kicked in with contractions every 5 minutes. Nicole came over shortly after i took a hot shower and the contractions were about 2-3 minutes apart. I was projectile puking for a bit and we were trying to wait out rush hour, but I was in pretty active labor. So we headed out aroun 8:45 ish and were at the hospital around 9:30 (Sibley). The car ride was rough but Cathy was great at helping me focus and Nicole was amazing. Cathy and Nicole were joking that I slept thru labor. I entered this weird zone in active labor, blocked out everything except labor, and mostly rested in between contractions. I thought I would have been walking, squatting, and moving around more- but it was so intense it was hard to stand and move around. I pretty much only moved to pee and was mostly on my side during active labor in the hospital- but was on hands and knees some. I was on hands and knees alot in early labor and early active labor. All in all, it went really fast and I started pushing around 12:30. It didn't seem like i was pushing very long- and Emerson popped out shortly after my water broke. She was 8lbs 1 oz and 21 inches. She was pretty alert and curious, and has a little bit of wispy hair- which appears to be reddish (yay!).

(I would like to add that babies birthed without drugs are commonly alert and curious in the first hour after birth.)