September 28th

September 28th was a wonderful day. I had been experiencing "latent labor" for about a month, but this morning I woke up feeling a little bit different. I suggested to grimes that we go ahead and celebrate susannah's birthday since I had a feeling we wouldn't be able to celebrate on the 29th. susannah got to choose the breakfast menu and ordered eggs. she opened a present at breakfast and then got to celebrate with her nursery friends at church. we had these great plans to take susannah to the kids fest at the civic center after her nap where she would meet elmo, and had invited some friends over for dinner and cake. I was so excited about the day, but fortunately didn't tell susannah all that was in store.

susannah woke up a little early from her nap and I was anxious to get going. grimes wanted to see if she'd fall back asleep. I think I knew that we were running out of time even though true labor had not yet begun. grimes went ahead and got susannah up and dressed while I called our friends who were going to keep susannah to let them know they'd have an overnight guest and we'd drop her off after her party. ten minutes later I call again and say we are on our way over.

we timed our first contraction of the pregnancy at 3:36 pm and Evan was born at 6:03 pm, right about when we were planning to have susannah's birthday dinner. needless to say, labor was short but sweet, and we made it to the hospital 18 minutes before Evan's birth. the doctor did make it to the delivery (after running up 6 flights of stairs due to a broken elevator), but Grimes caught Evan - it was an amazing day for all of us.

Susannah got to meet her little brother on her real birthday and had been enamored with him ever since.

celebrating her birthday on Sunday morning.

home from the hospital.

Evan with his big sister's "kiki".