Strike a pose.

And now for the post I've been threatening to do for two weeks:

PICTURES!!! Wheee!

I have no idea if anyone wants the labor and delivery story, but I guess I'll tell it and you can just hit "Shut up," a/k/a "Page Down" if you don't want to know.

I've been doing non-stress tests since December twice a week at the hospital. And every time I went, everything was fine. "Baby's heart rate is great, amniotic fluid levels are great. See you in a few days."

Truthfully, I was beginning to feel a mite foolish for even being there, so much so that I asked my midwife about maybe not going any more. Not that I minded, but I felt sort of hypochondriac-ish. She said, "Nope, you're staying in."

The very next week, I went in for my regular Monday appointment. March 8. My due date was March 23. They did the heart rate thing, and it was fine. They did the ultrasound and said, "Huh."

Not really my favorite medical word. Then the nurse said, "I'm going to get a second opinion." Oooookay.

The second opinion was that the first opinion was right: my amniotic fluid was way too low and I was having the baby. So we walked down the hall and I got a fabulous dress for the annual pervert ball, complete with a peekaboo closure in the back. Suh-weet.

I called Kenny and said, "I know when Eden's birthday will be."

He said, "Okay. When?"

I said, "March 8."

He said, "All right." Then there was a pause. "Wait. Isn't that today?"

I said, "Yep."

And he said, "I guess I'm headed to the hospital."

So I'm too tired to correct the spacing on these photos. I'm just going to number the captions and you can match them up, 'kay?

1. So I got comfortable in my luxury hospital bed. (Seriously, this hospital was crazy fancy. And all brand new.) But the comfort didn't last long because that little baby was in a bit of distress so, just like with my other two kids, I had to spend most of my labor on my side which is super uncomfortable after a couple of hours. Oh, and they kept making me go on oxygen. Sigh.

2. Totally worth is because then Eden was born. Labor was 9 hours and the contractions were by far the worst this time so I was extremely happy when I got my epidural. During the whole getting-the-epidural portion of the program, I was hurting and extremely cranky so when the anesthesiologist said, "I'm going to give you a shot to numb the area," I was not happy. In fact, I whined and said to Kenny (like it was his fault), "Why do I always have to get the shots? I'm tired of stupid needles." But after the medicine kicked in, I was glad.

3. Eden wasn't too glad to be born at first.

4. But then she seemed to think it was all right.

5. She's super cute when she's awake and striking super model poses.

6. But she's prettiest when she just looks around with her big, bright eyes.

7. Believe if or not, these two little boys were way more excited when she came through the door the first time than they were on Christmas morning.

I like this mom gig.