Nov 19 2009 Elizabeth Jean joins us!

November 19th 2009 was a wonderful day in our lives. Elizabeth Jean joined us and changed our lives forever. As I had been dilated to a 4 for 2 weeks & our Dr was leaving the next week for Thanksgiving, we decided to have my water broke. So we got to choose the day we wanted her to join our family, and we chose the 19th, which is also my Grandpa Atwood's birthday. So early the morning of the 19th we drove to the hospital, in a nice calm way, nervous but calm. My water was broken around 9:30am and contractions began and things were progressing just fine until the nurse came in and checked on me. As soon as she did everything stopped. So I began walking, and as long as I walked I'd have contractions but as soon as I stopped and sat down everything would quit. So after about 2 hours of this the nurse said they wanted to start me on petocin. They only gave me 4 cc's, a 1/5 of what they usually give women and that worked. Finally around 2:45 the nurse came in and checked me and said I was dilated to a 10 and should be ready to push soon. Fifteen minutes later we pushed the call button because I was ready. She came in and said that the baby was moving down and we were ready to go. For some reason the Dr was not available or was helping someone else, but I guess he didn't know or understand how quickly things were getting with me. Around 3ish the nurse said, "If he doesn't get in here soon I'll be delivering this baby, cause she's crowning!" Finally the Dr came in and within 15 minutes, at 3:21, Elizabeth was born.

This is them putting her on my chest for the first time!

She was 8lbs and 21 inches long.

She only cried for a short minute, and then was immediately interested in what was going on around her.

She was so brave during the pricking of her foot for blood test, and all the poking and prodding they need to do to all the new babies. She only whimpered a little. The one thing she really didn't like was her first bath! And she let us all know it!

But it always feels so much better to get all cleaned up!

And of course after such a long day what should any new little girl and her Daddy do?! Watch college football!!

We had to stay in the hospital for 3 days since her sugar levels were up and down. She was a great eater and had no problems with breast feeding. She was very healthy and has been such a good baby!

Her going home outfit!

We love this sweet precious gift so much and we're so grateful she came to join our family! Now we can't imagine life without her!!!

Belly Pictures

About a week before our little Elizabeth Jean joined our family, Matt and I decided to go take some belly pictures so that we could look back and remember how big I was while pregnant with her. So here are some of our best shots.

These pictures were taken off a random dirt road in the middle of Colorado. It was right before the sun went down on the 2nd week in November, but was still beautiful enough to be outside with short sleeves.

Believe it or not Matt, with his incredible talents took all these pictures. Thank goodness for the remote for his camera. These are some of my favorite. Matt has always been so sweet and wonderful to me, and now to our daughter too. I knew he would be an incredible father, cause I got to see him in action with his son before we were married. That was one of those major things that really made me that much more attracted to this wonderful man.

This is something we have waited for for such a long time. We had tried for over a year to get pregnant, and finally it happend for us. We are so grateful and blessed to finally have this beautiful little girl come to our lives, our home, and our family!!