Early Surprise :)

I had been feeling really really uncomfortable and hugely pregnant all week, and Weds. night started to feel so achy that I thought I might be getting the flu or something.  I went to bed as soon as Nate walked in the door (around 4pm) to try and fight the sickness.  I got up and had a little dinner and saw the kids off to bed.  But still did not feel much better.  We went to bed early, hoping to get a good nights' sleep to feel better, only to be woken up with the feeling on needing to go potty about every 15 minutes for like 3 hours.  I was in denial until about midnight, when I started watching the clock and realizing that most of the pain I was experiencing was in my lower back- definitely labor contractions.  I tried laying on the heating pad to pass the pain, but after watching the clock and feeling painful contractions every 3 minutes for an hour, I got up and started packing my hospital bag in between contractions.  I woke Nate up around 1am and we were soon calling the Dr. and our friends to try and get things under way.  Our "back-up" plan didn't work, as our friend didn't answer her phone, but luckily Adam did and soon Lynette was at our house and we were at the Reston Hospital.  It seemed like everything was in slow motion.  We got to the wing of labor and delivery only to find that it was locked and we had to go through the emergency room on the opposite side of the hospital.  I was fighting some major contractions by this point and was really worried that we wouldn't be able to get the 4 hour dose of antibiotics for my strep b.  By the time I was hooked up to the IV I was dilated to a 5 and it was about 2:30 am.  I got an epidural soon after, then 3 hours later, Grace Nichole Clark was born at 5:30 am.  The Dr. came in the room and got her stuff on, I pushed ONE time, and the baby was out.  I had to get a few stitches, but nothing major at all.  All in all it was by far the BEST labor I have had and my recovery has gone remarkably well (as you can tell by the fact that I am already blogging :).  Grace weighed in at 8.4pounds and was 21 1/2 inches long (very tall baby).  She has the same head of hair that all of our children have had and looks most like Kaylie did, but is definitely her own little person.  She is adorable and very very sweet and mild mannered so far!  She was one week early from her due date (Dec. 9) and we were scheduled to be induced on Monday, but she had her own time table.  I'm so glad she is here and blessing our lives with her sweet newness.  WE LOVE HER!