Long before the sun rose on Tuesday, July 29th, my parents woke up and snuck out of the house so not to awaken my big sister Daphne. They arrived at the hospital and soon Mom was sporting a lovely gown and was all hooked up to several machines in the triage area. 
Several of the various doctors and nursing staff came in to talk to my parents, and then promptly at 7:30am, Mom walked into the O.R. She was administered a spinal block to numb her from the chest down so they could proceed with the c-section. Dad had to get all dressed in scrubs, complete with hair cover and mask, and soon joined her. At 7:51am, the doctor lifted me up in the air and I filled the room with my cries. Mom loved hearing it, because she knew I was finally here! (a tall curtain kept her from seeing the activity in the room)
A nurse carried me to the other side of the room, and Dad came with us. They allowed him to cut my umibilical cord, something he wasn't able to do for Daphne. 
And then he was proud to show me off! 
After I was all cleaned up, Dad carried me over to show me to Mom. She would have to stay in the O.R. for about thirty more minutes to get all sewn back up. Dad and I went back to the nursery so they could do some tests on me.
Check me out! I weighed 7 pounds and 4 ounces!!
The girls met up and all got their nails done...some did their toes and some did their hands. What is it with women and painting their nails??? My mother did blue polish since she is having a boy here in a few days. She wanted a footprint or a pacifier or something, but the artist didn't know how to do that, so he did a flower instead. 
And my mother's friend Rachel makes and sells diaper cakes! So she made this one as a gift for me! How cute, thank you Rachel!!! 
So now that all the flings are out of their system, maybe mother and father are ready for my big arrival on Tuesday!
My mother realized she has very few photos of her in this pregnancy... She claims it's because she is embarrased of her 40 pound weight gain (ten more pounds than when she had my big sister!). But I keep trying to tell her that it's stinking hot outside since it's the middle of July and her feet are so swollen she had to go buy new shoes - two sizes bigger than her normal size! And a certain body part that will feed me after I will be born have grown so much, she's incredibly self conscious of herself right now. But I told her she needed to take some photos, and she better hurry since I'm going to be born in SEVEN DAYS!!!!!!
As you can see in these photos, her stomach is actually not that big. At the final doctor's appointment, her belly was 4 centimeters smaller than it should be! But everything is still a "go" for my birth via C-Section on July 29th!!!!
In exactly 7 days I will be born! Wow the time has flown by... Just seems like the other day I was discovering my hands. And soon I'll have to discover how to use my lungs.... My parents are trying to prepare for my birth as much as possible. Grandma bought a bassinet that my big sister and my big cousin William both used, but my Mom wanted to get one that could rock for me. And Grammy remembered that the one she used for my mom was in the attic. So Gramps and Dad climbed up to the attic the other night and found it. They got it all cleaned up and it looks great!
Grammy and Mom went and bought a new pad for it and a couple new covers. Now the strange thing about this bassinet, it was bought in the 1970's in Germany for my Uncle Eric when he was born!!! When Grammy and Gramps moved back to the States, they brought it with them and then when my mom was born, she used this bassinet, too! But since it's so old and from Europe, none of the standard size bassinet pads fit. So Mom is improvising and rolled up a cute blanket on the end. I think it will work just perfect!
Now we just have to wait seven days for me to be born....
