Introducing...

...Miss Paisley

Catherine

King!!!

She arrived in her own sweet time on November 29th at 8:43pm. After waking up to the wash of warm water flooding our bed (yep, my water broke at 2am), we arrived at our hospital at about 4:30 or so. We labored for 18 hours and then found out my pelvis was in fact too narrow for her to get through. And looking at the ring that was on her head when she was born, there was clearly no way. Apparently the one small thing on my body...why couldn't it have been my thighs?? So, delivered via c-section, she weighed 7 lbs. 13 oz. and stretched out at 20 inches. She has big blue eyes and is surprisingly mellow. After Paisley's harrowing 18 hours of labor, she was a little stressed and in the operating room during the C-section. She aspirated some amniotic fluid and as a result wasn't breathing. They whisked her away from me immediately and sparing the emotional and horrific details (yes, some details were horrific -- to be honest, I guess it looked bleak, but I didn't know this at the time...Josh however, heard and saw everything that they weren't telling me), she spent her first 3 days after that in the Neo-natal Intensive Care Unit. Suffice it to say, it was beyond devastating to me. You take a hormonal post-partum woman's baby away with minimal explanation after 18 hours of labor and a disappointing c-section and you've got an emotional trainwreck. Luckily Josh reminded me in a very emotional moment two nights later that we are lucky to have her. So many of those babies up in the NICU won't come home for weeks. Months. Some of them not at all. He made me realize that we get to take a healthy daughter home in a few days and I realized quickly that he was right. She got to room in with us on her final night there and that helped tremendously. And alas, we got to come home with our angel last night. So of course we're drooling on ourselves with sleepiness at this point, but we're really doing okay I think. It's true what they say about your heart bursting open when you become a parent. She just takes my breath away. I know Josh feels the same way. I overheard him bragging to our real estate agent (who held our hand for so many months of this pregnancy in our search for a new house - she became like family). He was so sweet, he simply said "she's so beautiful." And my heart melted.

So, basking in an interesting haze of sleep deprived stupor and an almost explosive joy, we stumble along, trying to find our way as parents. It's really an honor and such an overwhelming blessing.

And on that note, I think I'm being summonsed....Mommy's coming Miss Paisley!!