Nellie Beth

We are beyond thrilled to announce the arrival of Nellie Beth!  She was born at 12:27am on Friday, August 7th (4 days past her due date).  Next on my blogging to-do list is to write up her birth story (quick, before I forget the salient details!).

When the midwife first placed her on my chest after she was born, I turned to Mark and said, "She feels so small!  I think she's much smaller than our other babies."  My guess at that point was that she weighed about 8 lbs. 6 oz..

I was wrong.  She weighed in at a whopping 9 lbs. 2 oz. (tying Thane for the title of my biggest baby), and was 21 1/2" long.

I've never had a baby in the middle of the night before (two were born first thing in the morning, and two were born at 6:30 pm), and it was very strange.  Normally it's a flurry of letting people know, planning for the visit of older siblings, and eating a big meal.  This time, all of that could wait until morning.  

And in the morning, the big kids came to visit!  Graham was the first one to walk in the room.  He held out his arms, "Can me hold her?!"  He scrambled up on the bed next to me, and once Nellie was in his arms he kissed and kissed her.  Later, he pointed to everyone in the room and proclaimed each of us, "Big!" then pointed to "My Baby" (as he refers to Nellie) and declared, "but she's yittle!"

Everyone had a turn holding Nellie, from youngest to oldest.  We're all totally smitten.  

Aubree was so patient, and once she finally got Nellie in her arms, she was nothing but smiles.  "You're sooooo adorable," she cooed over and over. 

Aubree would be happy to spend 98% of her time holding her baby sister.  

At one point, I looked over and saw Mark and all of the boys crowding around Nellie.  "Oh my!" I realized, "this girl is completely surrounded by amazing men/boys.  She will be well loved and protected."

My mom came and stayed in the hospital with me on Friday night, before she had to leave early Saturday morning to return home.  It's too bad Nellie didn't come earlier, so Gigi could have more time to cuddle her, but at least she came before Gigi had to leave (unlike Graham)!

The plan on Saturday was to bust out of the hospital ASAP.  I got almost no good rest while in the hospital.  Part of that was because the first full day of her life, Nellie was pretty fussy.  Most of it was because the hospital policy doesn't allow moms to sleep with their newborns (which I understand from a liability point of view), but every time I put Nellie in her silly bassinet, she woke up within minutes. I was more than eager to get home to the family.

Everything went pretty smoothly until the nurse came to do the routine Congenital Heart Defect screening.  This just involves checking the oxygen levels in a baby's right foot and hand.  Nellie failed the screening.  "No big deal," the nurse assured me, "we can check again in an hour."

An hour later, Nellie failed again.  An hour after that, she failed a third time.  By this point, Mark had brought the kids so we could all go home together.  However, after three fails, the hospital staff ordered an echocardiogram to make sure there was nothing wrong with Nellie's heart.  The Cardiologist they called lived an hour and a half away, so we played the waiting game.  Four kids and one newborn in a hospital room is not exactly a picnic.  Thank goodness for on-demand movies.  Wall-E saved the day.

The Cardiologist, a fellow BYU alum and dad to six kids (so the wildness of our five didn't faze him), was wonderful.  He pulled out his equipment and performed the echocardiogram, explaining to the kids everything he was doing along the way.  After he pronounced her heart "perfect" we were FINALLY given the all-clear to leave the hospital for home.  By this point it was 4:30pm.  

Hurray for being home and hurray for our sweet new baby!  The first night home I went to bed at 8:00pm and didn't get up until 8:00am Sunday morning (of course, Nellie and I were up numerous times for feedings).  Once Mark left for church with the big kids at 8:30, Nellie and I went back to bed for another couple hours.  Sleep.  What a beautiful thing.  

Since being home, Nellie has been so much happier and is sleeping great.  We all love holding her and are so glad to have her in our family.