Scarlett is still the cutest baby ever

First of all, Scarlett is so dang cute. I offer as evidence the following pictures:

Snoozing:

Bundled up in green for St. Patrick's day:

Looking menacing while sleeping:

She had her hands clasped perfectly--it was so cute! She moved a little before I could get the picture, but some of her fingers are still intertwined:

First pair of shoes:

I keep trying to write a blog about her birth, but it always ends up being long and boring, so I'll try hard to just sum things up in a not boring way.

• I started contractions about 2:00 in the afternoon on Wednesday, but didn't realize they were contractions for a while. I only felt pain in my back, which I didn't think too much of since I'd had a backache for about three days straight.
• I took a walk, had a bath, and drank tons of water to see if the contractions would stop, just in case it was false labor.
• The contractions didn't stop, so I called Mark at about 4:00 and said "How ready are you to be a dad? Because things are starting to happen." (even though I still wasn't really convinced that I was in real labor)
• My sister and Mom came to visit. I didn't say anything to them because I didn't want them to get excited for nothing.
• Mark came home and we played some video games.
• The contractions started getting worse and closer together. I still only felt them in my back.
• I wasn't so much in the mood for making dinner, so I had Mark go get some pizza from Papa Murphy's. (This was at about 7:15) While he was gone, my water broke, but I wasn't really sure it was my water breaking (This is a little TMI, but here's why: I was already on the toilet, and I felt *something* come out. I looked and definitely saw some mucusy slimey stuff, but I couldn't tell if it was just mucus plug or something more or what).
• I tried calling the midwife, but had to hang up before the menu even ran all the way through because I had a contraction that hurt so bad.
• When Mark got back, I had him call the midwife. She didn't sound too concerned because I'd only been having contractions for about 5 hours by this point, and only a few that really hurt.
• Over the next hour and a half, the contractions got more painful and closer together. I was kind of freaking out at this point. I thought maybe the contractions were as hard to manage as they were because I was freaking out and not being calm or even trying to relax. I double checked with Mark to make sure I was within the 4-1-1 Rule (having contractions 4 minutes apart and 1 minute long for at least 1 hour) before we called the midwife again. Pfft. It was more like a .5-1.5-1 Rule. Buh? I didn't think labor for first time moms was supposed to go this fast! We called the midwife and talked to her at about 8:50.
  
• The midwife was assisting a c-section at St. Joe's and couldn't meet us at The Birthing Inn until 9:25. I didn't think I could handle that. My contractions were really painful now, and since it was back labor, there wasn't really any rest inbetween contractions--it was intense pain followed by an intensely painful contraction, followed by intense pain.
• Right about this time, I got the "urge" to push. Urge is in quotation marks because "urge" to me indicates a kind of mental control, or at least some kind of consious awareness of options, like you have some say in the matter. Nope. It was more like my body was DEMANDING I push. Urge is an understatement! And it was all the muscles in my torso contracting. I thought for sure I was going to poo my pants and barf all over the place. It was about this time that I started screaming with each contraction.
• I felt something starting to come out, but wasn't sure if it was her head or the bag of amniotic fluid (I still wasn't sure if my water had actually broken or not. Turns out it had, and that was actually Scarlett crowning). But I didn't think much of it before I got distracted by another contraction.
  
• Screaming was awesome (joking) since the house I live in has other apartments in it and there were a bunch of people hanging out downstairs. I later heard that a bunch of guys were trying to talk, but would hear me start to scream, stop their conversation, look up at the ceiling, and wait until I was done to keep talking.
• Finally it was time to head over to The Birthing Inn. I had two contractions on the way to the car, and was sure that some neighbor was going to call the cops because of the screaming I was doing.
• It was the longest drive ever from our house to The Birthing Inn! It's only an 8 minute trip, but it seemed to take forever. I was really worried about losing control of bodily fluids in the car--we had a rental because Mark's car was in the shop. I really didn't want to have to clean up poo, barf, or amniotic fluid before we had to turn it back in!!
  
• We got there at about 9:30 and basically took care of business. My family showed up at 9:40, heard me scream a couple times (I think I really freaked my brother out), and then heard Scarlett scream.
• The midwife was really surprised to see that I was crowning. She had set up an exam room expecting to do a sterile exam on me to see if mywater had actually broken. She was not expecting me to come in crowning, especially since I'm a first time mom.

• Scarlett was born at 9:53 p.m. She weighed 7 lbs 10 oz and measured 20 inches long.

• She immediately grabbed on to my finger when I held her hand! It was so cute!
• Since things happened so fast, I didn't have time to change out of the shirt I was wearing when I got there. I was wearing one of Mark's t-shirts, and accidentally gave birth in it. Doh! (And, in case you were wondering, no, birth stuff does not wash out without leaving a stain...even on a black shirt).
• I neither pooed nor barfed. All that worry for nothing! :)
  
• ...and I was wondering how I would spend the night since Lost wasn't on that week!

So much for trying to keep that short! More on how cute Scarlett is later... :)