EARLY ARRIVAL!!!!!!!!!!

Well, some of you may know, but Miss Emerson Grey Clark decided she was ready to come out into this world and was born this past Thursday, March 4th at 11:48am! It all started at about 4:45 a.m. that morning. Mariam awoke with some "cramps" which we initially played off as Braxton Hicks contractions. She got up and walked around, mostly in the bathroom, while I slept off and on until 6 a.m. At this point she comes out of the bathroom and tells me that it isn't getting better and to get out of bed NOW! We ended up calling the "Oh Crap!" hotline at the hospital and after I got a shower, yes I showered, we decided to take her in for a closer look. Right now I'm still thinking she will get checked out and sent home while I stay at work, that's why I got the shower, y'all. We get to the car and immediately hit DEFCON 1. Mariam almost ripped the doorhandle off, and the contractions started coming every 4 minutes. We arrived at the hospital in 2.7 seconds and Mariam was hooked up to the monitor. She was then examined by the nurse who gave us an awkward look and said there was a good reason for the pain, SHE WAS 8cm DILATED!! The anesthesiologist went ahead and put in the epidural, and almost instantly I had my wife back. After 1 1/2 hours of letting her body do the work she was told to start pushing, and 15 minutes later Emerson was here! She was 6 weeks early and weighed 5lbs. and was 16 3/4 inches long. She is the sweetest little girl with a FULL head of black hair - she is definitely our child! Because she was 6 weeks early (born at 34 weeks), she is required to stay in the NICU until she can take in a certain amount of milk and regulate her own body temperature - these are the two main things. We feel truly blessed to have this amazing gift come into our lives and cannot believe how much we LOVE her already!! To all our family and friends who have stopped by, called, emailed and prayed - THANK YOU THANK YOU! We love you all and cannot wait to introduce each of you to Emerson. Until then, here are a few pics of our sweet little lady and there are more in our photo gallery to the right.