It's a Girl!!

Emerson Jo Osbourne has arrived!  Technically, she arrived two weeks ago but I'm just now rested enough to formulate a complete sentence, so here's the belated announcement.  :)

Emerson was born on Friday, April 22nd, at 4:38 pm.  She was 10 days early and weighed only 6 lbs 8.5 oz.  She was born on Good Friday and Earth Day (Ralph Waldo would be proud).  It had rained all day - and rained for days and days afterwards - but Emerson was born during the brief moment of sunshine that day.

We chose the middle name in the middle of labor.  Drugged up on pain medication, I suddenly looked up at Jesse through half-opened eyes and said, "If she's a girl, we have to name her Jo..."  He leaned down and said, "Okay..." with a question in his eyes.  Then I explained:  it's Easter weekend...a holiday very important to me and my grandmother, Mama Jo (explanation will follow)... it's a sign.  As tears streamed down both of our faces - and my mother's, who was on my other side - he agreed.  And, of course, she was a girl, as we both thought all along, and so we had our Emerson Jo.

You see, my grandmother was a child at heart, especially when it came to holidays.  Every Easter, she would make the adults have an Easter egg hunt.  One year, I hid easter eggs all over her house after our hunt.  For a year later, I'd receive phone calls from her after she'd found yet another egg stashed away in a random tupperware bowl or suitcase.  After that, we'd hide or gift Easter eggs to each other at random times, and when she passed away, I stashed an egg in her casket (I guess I got the last laugh). 

All of this hit me in the middle of labor - that and the fact that I'd already covered Emerson's nursery in frogs, which she collected - and I realized this baby was being born with a ready made guardian angel.  Who was I to fight it?  It had to be Jo.  And so, it is.  Emerson Jo.  It's perfect, just like her.

Stay tuned for details on labor... restless nights... and the rest that has happened in the past two weeks!