Look What the Stork Brought!

Well, happy day, and what a surprise: our little girl made an early entrance into the world and has already captured our hearts. She is so precious, and we feel very blessed to have her in our family. And we LOVE being parents! I loved what Eric said earlier this week. He mentioned how he has been thinking how cool it sounds to think he is a daddy, but even cooler is to think that he has a DAUGHTER. I have walked in on several occasions to find Eric holding our sleeping baby in his arms and studying her face. It is so sweet. I love that! It is so fun holding Eliora, looking at her tiny, perfect body, listening to her tender squeaks as she sleeps, watching her dark, observant eyes scan your face, feeling her little fingers wrap around yours...truly there can be no greater work on earth than that of being a parent.

Let me sum up how it all happened. The Friday before she was born was my last day of work (yay!). I had what felt like menstrual cramps all day but thought they were merely Braxton Hicks contractions because they were too short and too irregular to be the real thing. The next day was my baby shower with my family attending, and the cramps continued. Still, I didn't worry. We spent the day shopping, planning, and doing activities together while my parents were in town (I even worked on taxes...while in labor I later learned). They left just before 11:00. About an hour later as I climbed into bed, my water broke. I remember jumping, and gasping, and Eric looked over and asked what was wrong. I think I had a stunned look on my face when I said, "I think my water just broke."

Fortunately my sister and her husband had decided to stay the night. We ended up going to the hospital on very short notice with the intention of just making sure the baby's heartbeat was good and then coming home to wait for labor to be regular. At the hospital, after being monitored for about 20 minutes, it was clear that contractions were very regular, long, and getting stronger. We stayed, and called my sister to bring all the extra things we didn't think we'd needed to bring. When my dilation was finally checked, they found I was at an 8. Holy cow! It was going way faster than we expected. All that kept going through my head was, "This is way too fast. I'm not ready, I haven't cleaned my house, I haven't finished my shopping, and our midwife is out of town. She can't come yet!" But come she did. She was born not 4 fours hours after arriving at the hospital and we were parents before we had time to blink. Crazy!

Eliora was born on Sunday, March 28th (which happens to be my sister, Heather's birthday) at 3:43am (you can bet we didn't get any sleep all night) which was three weeks early. She weighed 6lbs. 9oz. and was 21 inches long. She has a good amount of brown hair (very different from her mommy who was bald at birth) and beautiful, deep eyes (they look so wise). I remember when she was coming out and the doctor saying, "She's got a lot of dark hair," and thinking, "Dark hair? She won't look like either of us!" But I love it. She's very cute. And, I should note, even with how caught off guard we were and how mentally unprepared I was to give birth, we were able to do it without medication. Eric was by me the whole time, encouraging me and helping me. It was so nice to have him there and feel how much he cared. I couldn't have done it without him. It was incredibly intense and difficult, but I would do it again in a heartbeat. I've already been brainstorming what new things to try for next time since in this last one I forgot so much of what we learned in our class. Oh well. All is well.

Eliora is here, and we love her more than words can describe. It is amazing how you can love someone so much in such a short amount of time. Clearly it is a gift from our Heavenly Father, showing us in just a small way how He loves us.