NORAH EMILY IS HERE!

She's here! Our little girl is a few weeks early, but we are so excited to have her home! On Sunday I charged the camcorder, made sure the camera had batteries, charged my ipod and started packing my overnight bag at about midnight. Even though I wasn't due for a 2 1/2 weeks I could tell my body was getting ready and she would come before her due date.  Fifteen minutes later my water broke!  With Asher and Evie my water broke after I was in the hospital in labor so I wasn't sure what to do since I wasn't having contractions. We didn't want to wait too long because my labors are so fast, but because I was going unmedicated I didn't want to go in too early. So we waited a few more minutes and sure enough the contractions began and we decided to get going. It was a perfectly calm hypno-birth, (I'm sold on this approach so if you want encouragement I'm the one to talk to!) Anyway, Brian did not pass out this time, and was as humorous as ever, even asking after one of my contractions, if my "happy place" involved a midget on a trike! What a nerd. Norah came 3 hours after we left for the hospital and the doctor was able to get his gloves on just in time to catch.  Her blood sugar was low, because of my gestational diabetes so they had to take her and give her an IV.  She was in the special care nursery for the first 24 hours but then she was back to us and it was great.  I've always taken healthy babies for granted, but after having her hooked up to an IV and the threat of having to go home without her unless her blood sugar came up I realized what a great blessing it is to have such perfectly healthy babies.
Anyway she was 5 pounds 13 ounces and 18 inches long- just a little peanut. She brought Asher a helicopter with guns and so he was so excited to meet his sister and insisted his Nana buy his sister a doll since she brought him a gift.  He's pretty much indifferent to her, which is a huge improvement since his last sister was born.  Evie on the other hand can't get enough of baby Norah.  She's always wanting to hold and share her dolls.  Evie is missing the attention though.
We had a hard time deciding on a name. It came down to Norah or Paige and when we had decided on Norah we told Asher and he started chanting "Paige, Paige, Paige..." then Evie joined in.  It's hard not to be a little persuaded by such determined kids, but we decided Norah was the better fit.  Asher later informed us that "nobody cares about me! Nobody listens to what name I like."
Norah is beautiful and such a good baby. I miss sleeping through the night, but the trade off is well worth it!