And then there were three...

It's amazing what a relatively restful night of sleep will do for someone's overall state of well-being! We put my fancy new breast pump to use and my loving husband took the first half of the night shift and my darling daughter cut us some slack for the second. Thank the Lord!

"Overwhelmingly wonderful" pretty much sums up this past week in just two words. Nick and I felt so blessed that we were able to enjoy some one on one time with our parents before Emmy's big debut. It was an appropriate way to ease into the transition of parenthood...

Nick and I agree that last Wednesday was undoubtedly the best day of both of our lives. Our wedding day was beautiful and a boatload of fun...but there was no greater feeling than welcoming a perfectly healthy baby into the world who shares a little of both of us. She is truly an example of God's work, and is a miracle in every sense of the word. The beginning part of Wednesday wasn't nearly as joyful as the end...Holy cow, how does any woman give birth naturally?! My mom had been poking fun at me for being so adamant about getting an epidural (why feel pain if you don't have to?) But I quickly informed her after Emmy arrived, that I believe I had 60% a natural birth...Dr. Anderson, Nick and I agreed that we'd begin the epidural once I got to 4cm to make sure there was a good labor pattern in place before potentially slowing things down with an epidural. Well, 4cm came and went while the nurse anesthetist was detained in a c-section. All I can say is Nick absolutely gets a gold star for all that he did to take care of me...The IV meds that the nurse administered didn't touch me after about 45 minutes--leaving me writhing in pain (note the rats nest on my head!) for another almost two hours. Once I cried to Dr. Anderson about how bad the pain was, the nurse anesthetist came running in and put my epidural in before I could have another contraction (which were coming about every 2 minutes :-P). THEN I signed the consent form. :-P

The epidural delay aside, we had every best case scenario for Emmy's birthday. After I was good an numb, I closed my eyes for a brief minute, and before I knew it, we were ready to go! I agree with Dr. Anderson when he said that it was a fun delivery...I probably could have laughed Emmy out because I was so comfortable and because the jokes kept coming. Definitely not how I pictured the delivery to be--it was so much better! And then it got even better, because Emmy joined the party...and life has never been so good.

We are so touched by all the love that our little family has received...All the encouraging words, the visits, the generous offers to help and the gifts to make sure that Emmy is well taken care of. It's humbling, really, just how blessed we are. We got the red carpet treatment at Gateway, all of my friends took unbelievable care of Emmy and came by to chat and share in our excitement!

Friday morning, Emmy got to take her first breath of fresh air! (There are a lot of firsts going on in the Horn house these days...) We packed her up (according to Nick it's like moving Cleopatra :-P) and he drove UNDER THE SPEED LIMIT (that has never happened before) home to our waiting families! We spent the day hanging out, passing Emmy to many pairs of loving arms, and capped things off with a family dinner at our favorite Knockem Hill BBQ. Saturday was Emmy's first doctor's appointment, because they wanted to keep tabs on her jaundice and the doctor said it was improving! Later, we celebrated as an entire family, for the first time in years, a delicious prime rib Christmas feast courtesy of Mom and Dad! Andy, Claire and Emmy stole the show with their matching Christmas outfits and then their matching jammies--it was too cute!! We then opened a mountain of gifts and continued to eat, drink and be merry!

Sunday was our church's special Christmas service! Nick and I were excited that we could be a part of the program in that we were involved in a video presentation of different families reading the Christmas story. We represented the expectant family, which was pretty crazy because now it's hard to imagine life without Emmy. The Christmas message presented in the sermon--"a baby changes everything"--felt as if it was directed right at us. Thank goodness my mom was there to anticipate my every need, because she was ready with tissues! Under the direction of Chef Grant, the Horn family treated us to a yummy mexican feast for dinner that evening! We are so grateful that there were some leftovers, because we couldn't get enough!

Yesterday, the Horn and Odell families departed. As sad as we were to see everyone go, we are ready to forge ahead and focus on getting to know Emmy (and learning how to encourage her to sleep more at night and less during the day...) and to becoming more confident parents. It's all so exciting...

Last pregnant picture, 40 weeks and 4 days

I put the Horns to work erecting my Charlie Brown Christmas tree in the man room!

My focal point when the going got tough!

Sleeping Beauty

Emmy was roughly 30 minutes old--sharing her for the first time with Mom & Kris (Dad was being camera shy)

Three generations of Horns!

I found Dad! I love this picture...

Uncle Jamie fresh off the plane from California.

Emmy meeting my girls for the first time! Marin, Sara & Molly

My two loves

Going home! For the record, she is SWIMMING in 0-3 month clothes!

She's so little in her carseat!

Kris, Mom & Dad decorated the house for our homecoming!

Fast friends...Molly and Darla meeting their new sister!

Uncle Ben meeting his new niece!

Melts my heart to see them together.

Emmy giving Uncle Grant some cuddles!

Knockem Hill BBQ...delish!

We all took over the back room!

Cousins! Andy looks a little overwhelmed by his responsibility...:-P

So wonderful to have our whole family sharing our dinner table :-)

Dance party in the man room! Andy kept "tricking" us all with the whoopie cushion from his popper :-P

First family portrait with Molly and Darla (too bad Darla's not looking at the camera)

Pure bliss

Mom scraped up all the snow flakes on the deck to make this tiny snowball--so excited about our "White Christmas"!

Horn Family portrait

Odell-Horn-Sacksteder Family portrait

Tiny feet...I love everything about this girlOur sweet angel baby