It's a GIRL!!!!!!

Saturday morning, at 2:29 am, our newest little addition arrived! We are so happy. It was a bit of a rough deliver... more than I was use to. She ended up being posterior (facing forwards, instead of to the side) which made it take quite a bit longer, with a fair about of pain, especially the very end) but she made it and she was definitely worth it all.

This post took a little while to put up because we were working on the name, but now it is with great pleasure that I introduce Anela June (hereafter referred to as A in our blog). She weighed 7lbs 15oz and was 21" long. According to just about every visitor's comments (and her dad's), she looks just like D and CK. I certainly don't disagree with them, but I don't necessarily see it... I just see my sweet little baby that I love to hold.

Here she is just after getting weighed with her dad:

Dave, A, and Me
(I know how pretty I look in all of these pictures, but hey! I just had a baby!)

me and A

A

We got to have some visitors yesterday. Here is her cousin, Evelynne holding her.

Her brothers and sisters were very excited to meet her for the first time.
Here she is with L

CK and A

With D

CK and KL cuddling with me. How fun for me! All the sweet little girls.

Little sidenote: See the cup that KL is holding? It had some juice in it that the nurse had given me. It was pretty much gone, but every time KL saw it, she was sweetly pick it up and hand it to me and say "hewe mom!" I would thank her and she would give a big smile and "Youw wewcome!" I would then take a sip of the very watered down with ice juice and give it to Dave to put up. She would immediately find it on my table then give it back to me until I finally told Dave to put it where she couldn't find it. She was so sad she couldn't help by giving me my juice after that!

Here is KL with her new little sister. We think she will really enjoy having a new sibling to boss around! When it was time for them to leave, she was so very concerned that they weren't taking the baby with them. I saw real panic in her eyes, but I promised A and would come home in a couple of days.

A and B (now where's C? Heehee! It is possible that I'm still a little tired...=slap happy :)...ok, maybe I just have a really dumb sense of humor. )

One of the funnest things about having A when I did is that she was born close to 2 other girl cousins. I mean REALLY close!! My brother Brent and his wife, Kierra had a baby girl on Thursday night. Meanwhile, my next brother Mark and his wife Beth have been in the process of trying to adopt a little girl. I got a call while at my OB's office on Friday, that the birth mother had gone into labor and was about to have their baby! When I heard that, I figured I would ask my doctor to strip my membranes. A short time after that, I got word that she had the baby. Sure enough, I went right into labor and had A early Saturday morning. So... my parents got 3 little granddaughters in 32 hours of each other. As great as all that is, it gets better. Mark and Beth's birth mother gave birth in the same hospital as me and has been right down the hall so these little girls have already started playing with each other.

Here is Beth and baby Ava, with my sister Jill and A

Jill with both little ladies (don't you love all of Ava's hair?)

More fun cousins... Jill had her baby girl in August. Here is Lily (who just a couple of days ago was so little) with Ava and A.

The little girls having their first slumber party. (ok, they didn't actually spend the night, but they did look cute together sharing their little baby cribs).

Beth was somewhat offended by the fact that I hadn't brought lots of girly clothes and A was just stuck wearing regular hospital clothes. She fixed that by running down to get some new clothes for her to wear.

My parents dropped by after coming from the other hospital where my sister in law delivered. Here is my dad holding A for the first time. My mom is holding Ava. My mom had seen A before... she was with me when I had her. It was the first time she had been with me for one of my deliveries and she and Dave were both great supports through it all.


One final pic. This is just me and my baby. I was laying there this morning holding the sleeping baby thinking of how I wish I could freeze this moment forever. It is such a wonderful thing to hold and look at this sleeping miracle. I feel so truly blessed to have her, and my other kids. Motherhood truly is the greatest thing in the world! I'm sure Dave thinks fatherhood is pretty special too, but since I can never experience that and compare, I'm sticking with my claim about motherhood. I remember a few months ago after visiting my sister in law at the hospital just after she had her baby coming home and calling a friend on the phone. We were talking about despite feeling more physical exhaustion and pain then any other time in your life, being there with your new baby is the most special, peaceful time you could ever experience. My friend came up with the word perfection. Perfection. That is how I'm feeling right now.
Thanks to everyone for your love and support! I wish all of you far away were closer to share this with us, but we feel your love anyway and hope you feel ours.