I had to preface this one with a picture of Steve and his little girl!
Here is Grace's Birthday story:
I began feeling contractions around 2:30 Thursday afternoon, March 29th. Of course, after the last two weeks I spent a lot of time trying to convince myself that it had to be false labor...again. However, I wrote down the times each contraction began (they started at 6 minutes apart! Could it be??), and by the time 5pm rolled around I had been getting them four minutes apart, although they weren't too hard. I called Steve, who was in Baltimore coaching a lacrosse game, and managed to make his phone ring in the middle of his post-game debriefing. He excused himself to take the call, and his whole team and all the parents became very excited...a mom let him borrow her car to come home to me.
I still didn't feel like I should rush to the hospital, so we had dinner and then I retired to the couch where I continued counting contractions. Counting contractions, when you're so eager to have a baby, becomes all-consuming. I made a call to my doctor, and he told me to head in to the hospital....still, we waited until 8pm. I didn't want to go in early only to be sent home!
It was finally time to get in the car. Close to 8pm. We stopped at the library (didn't want to deal with those late fees!) and then made our way to triage at Anne Arundel Medical Center. After an hour or so of dealing with intensifying contractions, we graduated to a real live birthing suite! I was hooked up to antibiotics and liquids through and IV, a blood pressure sleeve, and fetal monitors.
Time passed and contractions came hard and fast, one on top of another. Epidural to the rescue!!!! Then came the Pitocin. By 6:15 am I was ready to push and Steve took his position as birthing coach (and did a fine job, I might add!).
Less than an hour later the doctor lifted a beautiful baby into the air and pronounced that it was a
girl!
"Then the word of the LORD came to me saying,
'Before I formed you in the womb I knew you;
before you were born I sanctified you...' " Jer. 1:4
"For You formed my inward parts;
You covered me in my mother's womb.
I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well.
My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret,
and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.
And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me,
when as yet there were none of them." Psalm 139:14-16
Last night I propped Grace up on my knees and enjoyed her blossoming personality! In fact, she was such a cutie-pie that I just had to grab the camera. I held it over my head and snapped away, hoping to catch some of her many faces. Grace loved the camera! These are some of my favorites!
Meeting Uncle Matt, finally home from Malawi, Africa. This was her reaction:
Thinking some more. She appears to be quite the philosopher:
Trying on Daddy's wedding band:
After thinking about it, Grace decided that she's old enough to skip some day-time naps to play with Mommy and Daddy instead...
Gracie is changing a little bit every day! It's amazing to watch her grow, and we're having fun "figuring her out"-- learning what her little whimpers mean, her favorite way to be held, and making faces with her. Yes, FUN! By God's grace we are not worn out!
