She's here!!!!

All the waiting is finally over :) Baby Joey made her way into this crazy world Wednesday April 23rd at 7:23pm after 17, that's right I said 17 hours of labor!! Here's the tale: Tuesday night Johnny and I were sitting in the living room doing our daily Bible study when Joey got to movin. She hadn't been moving much lately (I guess they tend to slow things down at the end when they run out of room), and she just started going crazy!!! We thought nothing of it and went to bed as usual. At 2:30am I got up for a routine pee session when I realized I couldn't hold this in...yikes. I rushed to the bathroom and my water broke. It was the strangest thing ever. Basically it felt like peeing your pants but warmer???? I called for Johnny and he woke up, I let him know my water had broken, and I don't think he belived me at first, then he realized it was the real deal and he sprung into action. He packed a bag, we got our stuff in the car and were on our way to the hospital...we were about to meet our sweet baby girl...so we thought. We actually got down the street and realized we had left our DVD's at home, so we turned around to go and get them, after all, we wanted to be entertained during the birth!!! We got to the hospital at around 3:30am and checked into the ER. They wheeled me up to Labor and Delivery, and we got ready for the Big Show :) They checked me and I was 1cm dialted and 75% effaced. Not anything to write home about. They strapped me up to this monitor which was checking 3 things...Joey's heart rate, my heart rate, and my contractions. They said I was having a contraction every 3 minutes, and I didn't belive them because I couldn't really feel anything! 4 hours went by and not much change. I could fell my contractions by now and got some medicine to help that pain....it made me feel drunk!!! Some time later, still not much progress...I was 3cm dialated so I could get my epidural!!! That was crazy...They raised the bed as high as it could go, had me hug a pillow, and in they went. The shot didn't hurt, it just felt wierd, like some pressure. From that point on it was crazy...they kept telling me that I was having contractions and that they were off the charts. Again I was in disbelief. I could feel my legs, my tummy and more, but I couldn't feel any contractions, when they checked my cervix...it was wierd. It was nearing the end and I was at 8cm. They came in to do another check and I had gone back to 7cm and my cervix was swelling :( At that point I was feeling contraction through the epidural...they were brutal..and I turned to the nurse and said "at what point do we go in and get her out??" From that point on the progress went really fast. They prepped me for surgery, showed Johnny what clothes to put on and took me to the OR for a C Section. They upped the epidural and began the process. About 5 minutes after I got onto the table, she was here! Johnny watched the whole thing....he's into that medical stuff. He said it was pretty crazy what all was going on down there in such a short amount of time. While they were sewing me up, Johnny went with Joey and got her tested, measured and weighed. She was 18.75 inches long and 7lbs 1.5 ounces. She scored an 8 on her first APGAR test at 1 minute and a 9 on her second APGAR test at 5 minutes. I'm not sure what the APGAR test is, but I do know that the highest score you can get is a 10 and no one gets a 10! After 4 days and 3 nights in the hospital we were discharged on Saturday and entrusted with this little human being. They said we would do fine and sent us on our way. Here we are day 5 at home...she's still pooping, peeing, eating, crying and breathing. I'd say we are doing pretty well as parents! I will post pictures soon, it's kinda hard to climb the stairs right now, and I have to load the upstairs! Thanks to everyone who sent us well wishes, gifts, cards and more....we love you and know that Josephine Leigh Stout will too :) Call if you want to come visit!