Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Our Little Jewel: The New Babe is Here!

She's here!  Our new daughter, Millie Jewel.  She was born on Good Friday. What a perfect day to have a baby!


 Meeting the "Fam"...

Dad first!

Biggest brother Gabe (19)
Big Sis, Breton (15)
Big brother Aram (8)
Big brother Elon (6)
Big brother Oli (4)... he asks to hold her the most.
Big brother Mikko (2)... this was as close as he would dare come... until he realized he wasn't too excited about sharing his "Sissy."
What's' that baby doing in my spot?
 For the first couple days, he would "pet her hair."  "I pet her hair" he would say. Then he would.  But now he will give her a blanket and a bear, and  he will hold her.  If she's not in my arms, he asks, "Mom, where's baby Millie?"
What a long  wait they  had to meet  her!

So... here's the quick take on  how it all went down:

Nine hours of labor. HAPPY!  How nice it was not to have to pull an all-nighter of breathing and singing, and then whining and crying  through  contractions.

My smallest baby ever at 6 pounds 7 ounces (6 pounds even when we brought her home).

The earliest baby ever... ten days early.

My favorite baby ever, because SHE SLEEPS. Eight hours at a stretch. At night (so far). I am one rested mama. Thank you, Lord.

And let me give a shout out to my rockstar doulas, Mary Ellen and her two daughters. I could NOT, I repeat, COULD NOT, have babies without these ladies. They are gifted and called to this ministry. And... they also came over this week and held the baby, fed my boys, played baseball with them, gave them baths, AND cleaned my shower and kitchen.

Love these girls.
And now... on to some rest and recovery. I'm having a hard time putting this baby down, but we jsut sit and rock and snooze and rest, and I hug her and smooch her and pray prayers of thanks.

And my apologies to those of you who got a sneak peek at the first time I posted all this--then accidentally deleted my post. Oops. Took me a while to find the time to put it up again!