Words cannot express the amount of love we have felt over the past few days and how grateful we are for each and every one of your comments, messages, and most of all your thoughts and prayers.  I wish I could personally thank and hug every single one of you, but hopefully you all will feel our love received and equally given in return!! 

I imagined how this week would play out...but obviously could not have fully predicted the events and the emotions of actually going through it.  The delivery process was nearly perfect...we checked in around 6am and got settled.  My cervix was still pretty far back and so I spent the morning on pitocin letting it soften...broke my water around lunch time and less than 3 hours later Hope was here (Dr. Ehmer literally had to sprint from his office accross the street and made it in the room just in time to catch her coming out), went all natural again (painful but can't beat the recovery), and Hope never showed any signs of stress.  She came out crying and eyes open...dr put her on my chest and she was looking right at me and I was in immediately in love.  She wrapped her little hands around my IV lines as if she were telling me "I'm not letting you go mommy!!"  As planned, the NICU team was waiting, and after everyone got to see her...they took her up to fully check her over. 

Now, as I have mentioned before...with Hailey and with Emily, we had an issue with ABO incompatibility.  I have O+ blood type and Barry is A+...both H and E had Barry's blood type when posed a problem after delivery (and apparently partly in utero that we never really knew about)...which is why I was monitored so closely for fetal anemia this time around (here's a little bit of info if anyone is interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemolytic_disease_of_the_newborn_(ABO)).  We had already prepared ourselves that Hope would have the same issue, which is why she went straight to the NICU to have her blood type checked out and then a treatment plan would be put into place (which, given that my antibodies grow stronger with each pregnancy...would have most likely included a blood tranfusion/exchange).  AFter patiently waiting for the results...the nurse came back and told us she was O+ like me...I nearly fell to the floor (literally).  This was an answered prayer and TRULY a miracle!!  No tanning lights (phototherapy), IV's, and most importantly...no long NICU stay!!  As I type this, 3 days later...I still can hardly believe it!!  This means that, somewhere in Barry's bloodtype, there is an O that allowed her to get my blood type...thank you LORD!!!  This means that Hope's immune system is not compromised as it would be if she had the difference in bloodtypes and that one little scare we had a few weeks ago with the anemia was most likely due to something I ate or stress or something because every sonogram following that one was perfectly normal!!  "HOPE" could not be a more fitting name for our little miracle baby.  We gave all our "hope" (meaning of hope is: trust/faith) into this pregnancy and so far, it has truly came through for us. 

Naturally, all of my fears are not totally gone and I am still scared that, at any minute, this precious life could be taken from us...and I wish that I did not feel this way.  Everything about bringing Hope home seems so familiar to Emily.  The last time I held and cared for a newborn was with Emily, it was the same time of year...it's just all SOOOO the same but yet so different.  I was terrified to leave the hospital knowing she's only 2 days old and we're headed out into this scary world.  Every speck of dirt, every cough, every little hand that touches her or breathes in her direction scares the "you know what" out of me.  I want so badly to put her in a bubble for the next month or so...or at least until she makes it to two weeks and maybe I will feel a little more relieved (a point we never got to with Emily).  Deep down, I feel HOPEful and trust that she will not be going anywhere...but I still find myself staring at her and begging God not to take her away...but if I have learned anything, it has made me cherish EVERY minute with her and I just love this little baby so very much. 

Hailey has been such a wonderful big sister.  She is so protective and wants everyone to know that Hope is HER sister!!  Her awareness is so different from last year...I was curious to see if she would understand that the Hope that was in my tummy is the same Hope that she can now see...and she caught on very quickly!  I just love it.  I can honestly say that this is the happiest I have been in almost a year...nothing else seems to matter at this point and I don't want this feeling to go away!  But no matter what...Emily is still close in my heart, and even though I'm still working through my feelings of comparing last year to this year...I feel like Emily is watching over us and her little sister, Hope!