Welcome Sister!

I am so excited to welcome the newest member of our family to the blog and share a few pictures with you!   She kept us guessing as to when she was going to arrive.  In fact, she waited until the eleventh hour before our scheduled induction to let me know she was on the way.  In the end we got to experience the whole timing contractions and late night trip to the hospital thing and it did make it quite exciting!  One of my favorite parts was calling my parents to let them know we were headed to the hospital.  Once we got there the contractions were infrequent and actually slowed a little.  Figures!  This little one likes to play by her own rules already.  But once the nurses made the call that I could spend the night, the contractions started right up again and got frequent and painful.  With every contraction getting more intense, I buried my head in Best's chest and he held me as they came and went.  I couldn't have done it without him. 

I got the epidural and was able to sleep through the night.  I was so excited when my doctor arrived the next morning and asked if I was ready to push!  I was.  The same doctor that delivered Peanut was there to deliver our baby girl and it was so special to share the experience with her again.  Once again, Best was there encouraging and supporting me and we had a great birth experience.  I pushed for about an hour and our little angel was born at 10:18 a.m.  She weighed 8lbs 12 oz.  When Best announced her name I just couldn't believe it!  A girl!  We were thrilled.  Although we had tried to not get our hopes up, I know we both wanted to get to experience being the parents of both a boy and a girl.  Those first few moments were just surreal.  Here is the first picture we took:

Here she is getting her newborn tests done.  She passed with flying colors scoring a 9 on the apgar like big brother!  We are so blessed to have had two healthy babies. 

 

 I loved that the nurses didn't whisk her away and that all the tests and her bath were done right in the room.  I had missed that part with Peanut and I liked having her near.  She was right back in my arms in no time for some newborn bonding and nursing.

More hospital pics:

 

We were so thankful that baby sister waited until Gammie and Papa were back home from Florida to make her arrival.  It was so nice to have them come and stay with Peanut.  They brought him up to the hospital the day she was born and I will never forget those first moments when he met his baby sister.  Best brought him in and he was so sweet.  He looked at her and said "I'm your big brother baby."  He gave hugs and kisses and said she was "so nice".  He has continued to be so gentle and loving to her.  I couldn't be prouder of his kind gentle heart.  We brought Sister home on Friday morning and we had decorations, presents, and food waiting for us. 

 

 

 Peanut has continued to be such a helpful, loving big brother.  He wants to include his sister in everything we do.  When we play Candyland she is always the gumdrop and he spins for her or has me "help" her spin.  Smile.  My favorite memory is the first night home when all on his own he asked to kiss her goodnight.  He gave her the gentlest kiss on the head and said, "Goodnight baby, I love you."

 We are so happy to be a family of four and I am so excited for our future. 

Have a great week friends and family.