Welcome Emerson Lynn Poole!

Monday, about two 'o' clock in the morning my cell phone rang. Not recognizing the number, I just wrote it off as a wrong number. About 15 seconds later, Austin's phone rang - both of our phones ringing in the middle of the night one right after another? No mistake. Austin pops up and tells me that it's Kevin (whom for some reason, his number wasn't in my phone). My first thought, "Amy's in labor!" So, I scramble to dial his number back, and he tells me that Amy was woken up by her water breaking. I didn't waste any time getting over to their house (they live about 4 minutes away) to go stay with sweet Anna. When I arrived at their house, Amy wasn't experiencing any contractions or pain, just leaking fluid. So, off they went to the hospital. I fell back asleep around 3:30 or so. I woke Anna at about 5:30 to get ready for school. I wish I could've captured her face when I told her that her parents left to go to the hospital and baby Poole could be on the way (they didn't find out the gender, so almost ALL of us were predicting a boy!). Amy called about 6:00 and said she was dilated to a 2 and they were monitoring her. They were most likely going to take the baby in the next couple of days due to infection setting in from leaking fluid. We all began praying because at this point, Amy was only 30 weeks along. About 2 in the afternoon, I called and Amy was receiving an epidural for pretty intense contractions and she was dilated to a 4. Around 4:30 that afternoon, Austin, Annabelle, Anna and I went up to the hospital so Anna could see her mom and spend a little time with her. At this point, she was still at a 4. I was watching her contractions on the monitor and they were coming very close together and were nearly off the charts. We left the hospital around 6:30. On our way home my phone rings and it's Amy. When I answer she asks to talk to Anna. I wake Anna up (whose asleep in the backseat) and I hear her squeal, "It's already been born??? It's a girl??" We were FLOORED! If we had just waited about 20-30 more minutes, we would've been at the hospital we would've been there for the birth! Crazy! Not only that, but the fact that it was a girl, shocked us even more. We were even more convinced that it was a boy when the little stinker started giving Amy all of these problems! Emerson Lynn Poole was born at 3lbs 6oz and 16 in. long. She sounds teeny tiny, but for her gestational age she is exactly the weight she should be! She was whisked off to the NICU and will probably be there for a couple of months. PRAISE THE LORD this little angel made it into the world safely and soundly. She is now off the respirator and just has oxygen tubes in her nose. She's doing great AND she's beautiful. What a little blessing, and we're so excited that Annabelle and Emerson are going to be good buddies! God is good.

Emerson Lynn Poole