Miracle on 4.20

Hi Isobel,
Guess what - you were finally born!

We waited for you to come on your own, but you must've been too comfortable in my belly. Our due date of April 7th came and went, and I felt like I was ready to pop as we waited for my body to go into labor naturally...and waited and waited. As it turns out, we had to make you come out with medicine, in the hospital-on Thursday, April 18th, the midwives recommended that we schedule an induction for the next morning at Swedish Medical Center, in Englewood, CO (just down the street from our house).

After 24 hours of antibiotics, Pitocin, contractions, epidural, resting and pushing, we welcomed you into the world on 11:43am, Saturday, April 20th 2013.  You weighed 8lbs, 5.2oz and were 20cm long! Your eyes were open, lungs strong and you could already move your arms, legs and head on your own (you got strong in there the last few weeks!).  When you came out, the midwife let me put you right on my chest and your dad and I looked at each other...and at you...and laughed a cried a lot because of how amazing it felt to finally see you and have you to hold in our arms.

I'll write out the whole birth story for you to read, but that's the gist of it.

After you were born, our midwife, Jennifer Whalen, helped Josh to clamp and cut the umbilical cord, deliver the placenta and clean me up.  We let the nurses clean you off and make sure you were healthy (APGAR score of 8/9!) too. They weighed, measured and wrapped you up tightly before giving you back to dad. When we were all ready, we moved from the L&D room to a nearby room in Mother&Child Recovery that looked more like a hotel room in the hospital! As we changed rooms, we got to show you to the family waiting to meet you out in the waiting room Your grandma, aunt Sammi, and your MeeMaw & PawPaw (dad's parents).  They were so excited to see you, and followed us to our room so that each one could have a turn holding you.

We rested there, welcomed lots of visitors and learned from the nurses how to take care of you for the next 2 nights.  In the hospital, we felt too scared to sleep when you were sleeping in case you might need us...so we were very tired.  We had a LOT to learn-for example, that we needed to trust God to keep you safe while we got some sleep!

On Monday, April 22nd (Earth Day and your uncle Todd's birthday), we left the hospital and brought you home.  It was cold and just beginning to snow when we put you in your carseat for the first time and drove you to our house. We felt like the luckiest people in the whole world, but also with a lot of new responsibility-to care for such a precious, amazing gift.