I am going through the same nostalgia that I think almost every mother does on the eve of their child's birthday. Remembering each of the steps leading up to the birth of their baby... I know that nobody gets as much excitement from these stories as the mother does, but too bad. Here goes...

It is about 10 pm now. Three years ago at this time, I had figured that another day had passed without going in to labor. Just two days prior, my ob had predicted that she would come any day. I had spent every spare second with Jeremy walking, trying to get this baby out. I wish that I loved being pregnant, but the truth is, I just wanted to meet my baby from the day I got the positive pregnancy test (the 9 months of nausea didn't help either).

I went to sleep at about 12 pm that night. Jeremy stayed up watching tv in bed. I was only asleep for about an hour when I felt a contraction (everyone says you will know the difference between a braxton hicks and a "real" contraction and I would have to agree).

It woke me up instantly...I turned to Jeremy (who was still awake) and told him I was in labor. I got out of bed and started to get things ready. My water broke soon after. The contractions were coming very frequently. Within 20 minutes we were headed to the hospital.

By the time that we got the hospital, I was dilated 5 cm and the contractions were coming every minute or more. After some monitoring and deliberating, it was decided that I should have a c-section.

At 4:02 am Emmy came crying into the world. After she was cleaned they brought her to me. I kissed her head and said "she's beautiful!!" and she was...