The highlights

We got an early Christmas present.  Blakely Lynn was born December 8th at 4:15 weighing 4lbs 9oz and 16 3/4 inches long.
It has been a long week, and sometimes I can't figure out what day it is.  I will give a few of the highlights of the last 5 days of our lives.
I checked into the hospital to be induced Tuesday night.  Blakely wasn't growing like she needed, so the doc decided she'd be better to get out.  I was 35 weeks 5 days.
I think because I was so early, and my body wasn't ready, labor completely changed my pain scale.  I have a new 10.  I think you could cut off my finger and it might be a 5 compared to this.
After 11 hours of contractions, I was able to get an epidural that only worked on half my body.  The second epidural was my best friend.
It took me that long to get to 3cm dilated, then took a few more hours for me to get to a 5.
Then in about 20 minutes I went from a 5 to a 9.
Then 20 minutes after that Blakely showed up.

Because she was so small and early, she had to go to the NICU, but not for as long as we thought she would.
She had to have a feeding tube.  It still makes me sad to think about it.

The day after she was born, Stephen got either food poisoning or a bad stomach virus and started violently throwing up at about 11pm.  Luckily we were at a hospital.
He spent the night in the ER and finally stopped throwing up at 4:30am after 3 bags of IV fluids.  He was then quarantined to his parents hotel.  We didn't get to see him for the next two days. 
I discovered that mom's can run off of significantly less sleep than non-moms.  I slept about 4 hours in three days. 

Praise the Lord for my mom, who took over when Stephen went to the ER.  Thanks to her, the three of us are still alive.  Praise the Lord also for Stephen's parents who came in town to see Blakely, but ended up nursing Stephen back to health instead.  They got to see Blakely for 1 hour in the 3 days they were here.

 We checked into the hospital on Tuesday, and finally got to go home Saturday afternoon.  This was such a gift from God since we were prepared for her to be in the NICU for much longer. 

She's the sweetest thing I've ever seen and we are so lucky to be her parents.  Now if we can just get some fat on her little chicken legs.