All the pregnant feels came about as I watched my girls interact with him – I absolutely couldn’t wait another minute for Baker to make her debut.  I was literally counting down the hours and the minutes until she would be here.  The night after we met him (Wednesday) I started having dreams about Baker and was awake at all hours thinking about how it would be when July 14th finally arrived.  The weekend seemed like it would just drag on and on before Tuesday would come.
After leaving the hospital, we went to lunch and the indoor playground at the mall to let the girls run off some energy before heading home for dinner and a relaxing evening at home.  About 5:30pm, after Parker woke from her nap, I noticed her eyes to be really red – raccoon circles and really puffy, as well as some sticky goop.  She looked miserable.  Jolie had some of the same, but less red and less puffy.  It was after office hours, so I called our pediatrician’s nurse helpline because I knew I needed to get whatever this was sorted out before Tuesday came. I needed my baby girls well before I left them for 4 days.  The nurse advised us to take them to Urgent Care..

 After a long and eventful evening, we finally made it home around 8:30pm.  I ate a pear and peanut butter toast while I made dinner for the twins, and almost immediately I felt ‘off’.  A few days before that I had eaten a pear while at work and it had upset my stomach, so I was sure that this was the case again.  Blowing off the crampy pains, I fed the girls, bathed them and got them into bed for the night.  Jordan and I sat down to watch a movie around 10pm.  By 11:30pm I had become super uncomfortable- Braxton Hicks were all over the place, and felt much stronger than ever before.  I had just seen Dr. Walsh two days before that, and she had assured me that I was good to go for next week’s delivery with no signs of labor – so I just assumed my body was ‘getting ready’.  In bed by midnight, I fell asleep without any thought of feeling uncomfortable.

For whatever reason, I was really frightened.  I don’t remember feeling this anxious with the twins’ delivery.  I was wheeled into the OR – just like I had been just 2.5 years earlier, and even still it all seemed so foreign to me.  The entire morning was such a blur, and the hours began to run together – I felt like I had no idea what to expect.  My labor and delivery nurse was amazing.  She helped tremendously in calming my nerves while they gave me an epidural and prepared for my c-section.  I don’t know how I would have felt if I didn’t have someone like her to be there for me while Jordan was standing in the hallway waiting to come in.

Walsh busted through the OR doors and was ready to go – and I was SO ready.  Ready to meet our girl.  I started crying and couldn’t stop.  I had been wishing for her arrival for the last several weeks and we were here.  The time was finally here to meet our girl.  During the c-section, Walsh complimented on my lack of scar tissue (which was a big concern of mine.. as I would like to have more babies and scar tissue plays a role in my ability for multiple c-sections).. the small talk made me feel much more at ease.  Everything was so very clear about the entire morning – where as with the twins, I remember being in a bit of a fog throughout the entire experience.

Baby Baker was so alert.  She had her eyes wide open, looking around, staring at her mama and I’ll never forget her little tongue going in and out of her mouth.  She was suckling the air, and I cant even describe how adorable it was.

 Just hours new.

Saturday came and went so quickly – and I couldn’t wait until my big sister girls were able to meet her.  Jordan and I opted to keep her birth announcement limited to just very close friends and family for a couple days until Parker and Jolie would be able to meet her.  Those girls weren’t able come to the hospital until after they had been on antibiotics for a full 24 hours as not to expose Baker to pink eye.

Even though it was completely out of order for how things were supposed to go for delivery day, I wouldn’t change it for anything.
..I didn’t get my nails done.
..I didn’t get my hair done.
..We missed out on our ‘last’ date night.
..and she was totally four days earlier than we expected.
But really.. I couldn’t have thought of a better way to have her enter this world.  Who cares of our best laid plans.  Isn’t that how is always works?  You make plans around something like this, and they are totally going to fall through.  Its sort if like and unspoken rule that I was attempting to break.

She completely surprised us on that early Saturday morning, but thats how our Baker Bree rolls.  She had been just one miracle surprise after another from the very beginning – starting with her conception.  

Part II .. our hospital stay, meeting her pseudo womb-mate bestie and future husband, and our first day home ..  to be continued.