Welcome Elizabeth Grace!

Making her appearance 9 days early, just as Chris had predicted, Elizabeth Grace came to us on March 15th at 11:49am. She was 17 inches long, and weighed 6 pounds, 12 ounces.

A few days before Elizabeth came, Chris captured these sweet pictures of the girls kissing their baby sister. As the time drew near for their sister to arrive, there were lots of emotions running through our house. Emily wanted to be held all the time, needing constant reassurance that Mama loved her. Addison got more and more excited as Mama's belly got bigger and bigger. She would ask to see Baby daily, lifting my shirt to give the belly a kiss or a hug. 

On the morning of Thursday the 14th, after a night of semi-sleep and increasing contractions, Chris left for work only to be called back 20 minutes into his drive. I was sure the baby would be coming very soon and wanted Chris to be home. We spent the day timing contractions, going for walks in the neighborhood, and waiting. The girls were pretty excited to have Dad home on a day that he would normally be at work.

Reading in the "Prepared Childbirth" book about timing contractions - Emily was very interested to see what this book was all about

While I ate lunch inside and rested, Chris entertained the girls out in the backyard with a bit of snow that remained after a big snowstorm the weekend before. Chris had made a 6 foot tall snowman with all the snow, and four days later, this little pile was all that remained.

At 9:30pm, the contractions were finally coming regularly enough to head to the hospital.

One last picture before loading up to head to the hospital

At the hospital, the contractions petered out again, so we rested for a couple hours before waking up to stronger, more intense contractions. It wasn't until about 8am on Friday the 15th that the nurse had me start pushing. Here's a picture of Chris and I just before the pushing started (I had an epidural by then, if you can't tell from the smile).

Elizabeth ended up needing to come to us by c-section. She was facing sideways and just wouldn't turn. She was born at 11:49 on Friday morning.

Because she had been in some distress during birth, she needed to get a little extra oxygen right after she was born. 

Chris likes to call this one the shot of his little astronaut

About two hours after she was born, I got to hold her. It was such a relief to see that she was strong and healthy.

Chris and my mom were also relieved to see Mom and Baby healthy and happy.

 

After having some snuggle time with Mom, Elizabeth got her first bath.

And spent some time relaxing with Dad.

We are so happy you're here Elizabeth!