No biggie, just my water breaking

It was an unseasonably warm Saturday morning in March, and Nick and I were working hard on "our" to-do list before the new baby was to arrive.  I got up to get ready for some bridesmaids dress shopping with my friends (Jen, Emily, and Rachel).  Nick was going to put another coat of paint on the railing to the basement.  Apparently my water broke when I got up in the morning, but I decided to ignore it--I wasn't having any painful contractions and I just had too much to do yet before I was going to have this baby.  (Note: I guess you should pay attention when your water breaks...).

So...I continued on with my day--some shopping, lunch, and then dinner with friends, Jen and Nick, at Cuzzy's.  When we got home my friend, Nancy, from CA called.  As I was talking with her I realized that maybe it was time to listen to my body.  I secretly looked up "water breaking" on babycenter.com as she jokingly said, "wouldn't it be funny if you went into labor while on the phone with me?"  Little did she know, that's exactly what was happening!  Finally at 9:00pm, I called my doctor.  I told her I thought my water broke at 8:30 am, but I wasn't having painful contractions, and really I hadn't shown any signs until just then.  She asked me how far I was from the hospital (strange question...) I said, "10 minutes."  "OK, come in right now."  uh, ok.  Just as I'm hearing this, Nick walks in from the garage to pack his bag for the hospital (something that's been on the to-do list for quite some time).  And he mouthed, "what's up?" So I wrote on scratch paper, "Dr., going to hospital."  Suddenly Nick and I set off into high gear--underwear, camera, Kate and Joe's hospital survival kit, car seat...wow reality check.  And off to the hospital we go.

They admitted me pretty quickly and gave me the goods to get the contractions started.  Before we knew it, we had a little baby girl.  However, since I was convinced we were having a boy (I thought I accidentally saw the key indicator on an ultrasound at 20 weeks) I hadn't stressed too much about the fact that Nick and I were still arguing about a girl's name.  Oops.  So, after a little classic Katie-Nick throwdown we called our families to say Sage Josephine Piehl made her grand entrance into the world on the first day of spring, March 21, 2010, at 8:44am, weighing a hefty 6 lbs, 11 oz, and standing 19 in tall.  She has her mother's mouth and her father's nose and she was the talk of the nursery--both for her stunning good looks and for the incredible strength of her lungs.

Thank you to all who have visited and sent well-wishes.  Sage is doing well and mom is getting used to not working (or sleeping).  Enjoy the slideshow pics and we'll add more soon.

Love,
Katie, Nick, and Sage