Sunday, August 26, 2012

She's here!

She's finally here! And she's utterly perfect! Our daughter, Gwendoline Celeste, arrived as scheduled at 9:43 am on Sunday, August 26, 2012. She weighed in at a respectable 6 pounds, 9 ounces and was 19.5 inches long. After a rather eventful and somewhat complicated pregnancy, the birth was smooth and absolutely textbook. Praise God!

We are so in love with our little girl. The magnitude of it seemed to hit Jeph like a ton of bricks as soon as he saw her in the operating room. He'll tell you he cried because he stubbed his toe, but that man was absolutely captivated. Before the procedure started, I had made Jeph promise to go with Gwendoline to the warmer for tests and cleaning once they got her out. As soon as she emerged, he was off like a shot! I didn't get to see either of them for several minutes, but I could hear them. Those strong cries and first comfort coos from daddy are the most precious things my ears have ever heard. During this time, I heard them announce that Gwendoline had two arms, two legs, ten fingers, ten toes, and scored a 9.9 (out of 10) on the Apgar. After what seemed like an eternity, Jeph came to give me a report. His first words, through tears, were "She's perfect." And so she is! She's also the most beautiful baby I've ever seen, if I do say so myself.

After four days in the hospital, we are now at home and trying to settle into life with a newborn. My mother has been staying with us to help and our house has never been so clean! She's making excellent food every day, too. We're not getting much sleep, of course, since Gwendoline feeds every three hours around the clock, but we're loving every minute and are fully enjoying her preciousness. Though it has taken me four days of typing a few sentences at a time to finish this post. Ah, the life of a new mom!

Please enjoy these pictures of our beautiful girl.

First family portrait

Alert baby girl

Hanging out with daddy

Spending time on the big bed



Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Final prenatal appointment

We've reached another milestone- our final prenatal appointment! There was not much change from last week, other than my putting on another couple of pounds, of course. Gwendoline is sticking to her guns and is still breech, so we're on for our Sunday morning (August 26) delivery! That's only three days!!! We're so excited and ready to meet her. Our next post should include some baby pictures.

Monday, August 6, 2012

T-minus 20 days!

This morning, Jeph and I had the privilege of selecting our daughter's birthday! If everything goes according to our new plan, Gwendoline will arrive via scheduled c-section on Sunday, August 26. She's still staunchly expressing her independence by remaining a breech baby. We learned this morning that her exact position is called "frank breech," which means that she is completely vertical, with her legs extended above her head. My doctor likened her to a diver doing a front pike. Though that doesn't sound the least bit comfortable to me, Gwen seems completely undisturbed and ambivalent about the whole thing. Be looking for Gwendoline in the 2032 Olympics!

Other than being breech, Gwen is really bulking up and looking great this week! She's up to 5 pounds, 12 ounces now and falls somewhere around the 25th percentile. A huge improvement from the 9.7th percentile of a few weeks ago! The doctor estimates she will weigh around 6.5 to 7 pounds and be tall (19.5 to 20 inches) at birth.

We are eagerly looking forward to holding this little sugar in our arms very soon! Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers- we truly appreciate them!

I'm sorry... Does that say watermelon?
Where do we go from here?