Ok, so brace yourselves (as if the midnight posting wasn’t enough of a heads up…)

Saturday night, I took Erin to the hospital to get checked out, because she had some symptoms of a possible premature labor. Turns out that it was a good thing that we went when we did, because less than two hours later, she had the baby. That’s 9 or 10 weeks early, and it was a pretty scary “crash” c-section. Both Erin and the new baby are fine, though Erin will be in hospital for another few days, and the new baby will be in the neonatal intensive care unit for at least 8 weeks. It’s hard to express how scary it was to be sitting in the recovery room waiting for word about what was going on in the OR, but at least the news was good news in the end.

So, first off, “It’s a Girl!” which will shock and amaze a lot of people. Second off, both Erin and the new baby are doing fine - Erin’s actually doing better than she did after William was born I think. It’s a little tough to compare though, cause they have her on a morphine machine. 1020 grams (2 pounds 4 oz) and 39 cm (about 15 1/4 inches) pretty tiny. Her name is Julia Nicole Mitchell, and despite her size she’s quite a little fighter. They’ve got her in the incubator for a while, she’s breathing on her own, but they have a tube into her lungs just in case she needs a boost. Her heart rate is great, and she’s a healthy pink. Anyway, I snuck off after putting William down, so I should get back up there before he notices that I’m gone.

**EDIT** Oh, and to top it all off, William has the chicken pox, so he can’t even go to the hospital, and I’ve got a cold which means I can’t visit my new baby. It’s a frustrating time, but Julia and Erin are both doing great.