Merritts: NOVEMBER 12, 2012. It's Baby Day!

The day was finally here! This moment was really happening! We were loading up our 3 children and taking them to my sister's house so we could meet our new little bundle.

Smiling, yes.

Nervous? You betcha!

Ready to meet this little one?

ABSOLUTELY!

The questions were asked, the IV's were being started, the wretched drink was taken and the final question was asked, "Do I want to be wheeled down or walk?

Of course I had to act like I was cool with the whole idea of being awake and cut open, so yes, I am going to walk myself into the operating room!

Rog went as far as the doors and left me until I was completely prepped and ready.

I went in, sat down, tried being chatty with the nurses as if I was still OK with this whole process...And then they said relax and lean forward.

Chatty Kathy stopped, and it was as if I was a toy with dying batteries. I had no expression, couldn't form the words I was thinking and wanted to say, felt as if my mouth would fall apart if I tried to say anything from that moment on.

They laid me down, put up the curtain, gave me oxygen and I began to pray.

I had my phone in hand and ear buds in so I could listen to music. The only issue was that I never turned it on and couldn't find the exact way to touch the phone to turn it on. So, I prayed and thought of the songs I wanted to hear and sang them in my head to make the time go by so I did not panic.

What seemed like forever was really only minutes and the only song I could think of was 'Be Still My Soul' and even that was only the first verse or so. I can't say how many times I repeated it over and over and prayed the same prayer repetitively as if I was a tape that was skipping.

THEN!

IT HAPPENED!

I heard, "OK! Lower the table."

Never heard that before.

A few shakes and a lot of pressure later and I heard, "Where is she keeping this baby?"

Along with "She's such a big baby!"

And SHE WAS HERE!!!!

YES! WE HAD YET ANOTHER GIRL!!!

All I saw dangle over the curtain was a foot, and seconds later I saw my baby girl's face.

My 4th baby girl!

Rog left me to go meet his new little girl and cut her cord.

8 lbs. 4 oz.

20 1/4 inches.

Our sweet little girl!

I am pretty sure when I heard the news I smiled and laughed on the inside because I found it humorous that of course we would have so many little girls.

Daddy was pretty smitten.

We had a name but didn't say for quite some time just to make sure we were making it official.

This name was on the list for 3 years and was Lilliana's name for about 10 minutes or so until we changed it.

It was meant for this little one.

Miss Evangeline Lilly Merritt.

Evangeline was away from me for about 15 minutes and the phone rang in the recovery room and the nurse said they were bringing a pretty hungry baby to meet me.

I was doing pretty good in the recovery room until they unlocked my bed and moved me back an inch to begin wheeling me to my room.

Then, the sickness began.

I was dizzy, nauseous and exhausted for the rest of the day and into that night.

It is the worst feeling for me and it was bad enough this time that I needed two units of blood to get me back to normal.

After all of that I was good and ready to act normal again.

Grandma was the first to hold Miss Evangeline.

This EXTREMELY IMPORTANT lady holding Evangeline is my all time favorite nurse, Kelly.

She was the one in charge of me the early morning I went in to the hospital after my water broke with Lilliana. She was by my side through the entire process. The good, the bad and the scary! She kept me calm the entire way through.(Except for when she anxiously told me to get onto the operating table myself to deliver Lilliana but who wouldn't have been scared at that moment) *wink

I made sure she was my nurse to deliver Annelyse and she kindly came in on her day off to be with me for Evangeline. She held my hand, took pictures for us and kept us calm yet again! I couldn't ask for anyone better to be with me and Rog during a delivery! I am SO THANKFUL for this woman!