Introducing....................ZOEY!!

WOW! I can't believe I didn't post anything after August 6th. Well, as you all know by now our little Baby 'H' came early. Even though in this post I don't have a picture, look for a swarm of photos coming soon. Here is a general play by play.

Monday, August 25th I worked a full day. Had an OB check up appointment at 4:45. Was 2cm dialated and 90% effaced. Everything looked great. No contractions, just a few braxton hicks. Nothing out of the norm. 7:30 p.m. that night I went for a nice pre-natal massage as I have been getting throughout my pregnancy. Came home, lounged as usual and headed to bed feeling pregnant, but normal.

In the middle of the night I got up as usual to go let the dogs out and use the restroom. Again, all normal practice by now. At 2:30 a.m. I woke up feeling like I was going to pee the bed and had the instinct that my water was breaking. I woke up Chris saying, "Chris, Chris, I think my water broke, my water broke!" I got up and yes, my water broke in the bathroom. I was just saying, holy cow. We called our doctor and they said to head to the hospital. All of a sudden my contractions started. YIKES! Of course we had our bag packed for weeks and Chris was pulling all the last minute things together. I decided that I really wanted to shower before we went, so we both took our turns getting ready and me breathing through the contractions and Chris trying to time them. We bought a stop watch and when we finally needed to use it the stupid thing didn't work! Before we left my contractions were 4 min. apart.

By 3:15 a.m. we were at the hospital in our room. All of a sudden I was hooked up to ever monitor they could get me on. I told the nurse, I really think I need to poo. She said well, just wait, you need to hold it. I said, well I went before I came in, it just feels like that. She said, well, you can't go the baby's head is really low. I got an i.v. in and quickly signed the okay for an epidural. No one can prepare you for what the pain is like. The nurses nicely offered me some staddol to take off the "edge" of the contractions until my epidural was in. Sign me up!! That stuff was awesome. Made me a little loopy, but definitely made me more relaxed. By 5:15 a.m. I had my epidural. It took them 3 wonderful trys. I was really nervous about the epidural as last year at this time I suffered from spinal headaches, which can be a side effect of epidurals. What they don't tell you about epidurals is that they take awhile to take effect. It was weird. Our OB doctor came in around 7:30 a.m., checked me and said, well you want to go ahead and have a baby? Chris and I just stared at each other and said are you serious? We both thought foresure he would come in, and leave for a few hours come back and it would go on for awhile. But I was ready to go. No one can prepare you for how your labor may go.

I luckily only pushed for 20 minutes and here came Zoey Kay Harnly. What an amazing experience. We still cannot believe she is here. She has already melted her daddy's heart and made her mommy cry just looking at her. (more than once) 6 lbs. 15 oz., 20" long. 8:19 a.m.

Look for pictures to come soon. We are still getting everything settled.
Thanks to everyone for your love and support and for the visitors, phones calls, emails and messages. We can't wait for all of you to meet her in person. She is just too cute!