Introducing Emerson Marie Lynch born July 2, 2010

So, I haven't blogged in a while... and for good reason! I went into labor Thursday, July 1st at 5am. By 3pm I dilated to 6cm and was 100% effaced {at which point our doctor sent us over to labor and delivery... {we asked if we could go home to get our things that we hadn't yet packed... somehow I never thought I would actually go into labor. I thought that happened to other women, not me}.
The doc broke my water at 6:20pm {which he said was about to anyway} and I dilated immediately to 7cm. By 9pm I dilated to 9cm {without any pain meds... I was reaching my goal of an unmedicated birth} but little Emerson was only at zero station. I finally needed the epidural if I was going to have any energy left to push... WELL... I never got to push. Emerson never descended past zero and we ended up in the OR for a cesarean section.
Emerson Marie Lynch was born at 2:50am on July 2, 2010. She weighed 8lbs 13oz, 20.5 inches long, 36cm head circumference and perfectly healthy! It has been a busy month recovering from surgery and the emotions and hormones that accompany new moms {WOW! If there were ever words to describe those!}
Emerson is truly the most adorable baby in history {note: all comments made about Emerson are completely and 100% biased... so don't feel challenged}. Everyone wants to know if her hair is red... We weren't quite sure how to answer that, because she was born with a full head of hair, but it was brownish, redish, blondish, copperish, something. My mother-in-law and I took Emerson for a walk the other day and a cute elderly lady out for a walk asked to see her and the first words out of her mouth were... "Ooooohhhh what a sweet redhead!" So that sealed the deal, I guess she's a redhead! Of course we've been told her hair and eye color are not set in stone for a while so we aren't quite sure what to say about her eyes either... bluish, hazelish, greenish, grayish, something. We measured her length yesterday on her 1-month birthday and she is 24 inches long {and that is the most frequent comment we receive about her other than her hair is "WOW! She's long!" Which means she follows in Dan's footsteps or babysteps}. Here are some photos from the past month {a little background on the photo of Emerson with the caption "Grandma Norma's Baby Booties" the baby booties that are on Emerson's feet were Dan's grandmother Norma's baby booties when she was born... yes, those booties are almost 100 years old!}