A New Milestone

I cannot believe how fast my baby girl is growing and changing. She will be a month old on Thursday and this past week learned to smile. It melts my heart every time she does.

Visiting Grandma and Grandpa Mogford

Joe and I decided to brave the normally eight hour drive to Idaho with a three week old baby to visit his family this past week. Turns out Grace is a pretty good traveler (although here I must thank the inventor of the pacifier). We got to visit Joe's family and some great friends while there. It is so nice to be able to let Grandma hold my darling girl when mom and dad need a break. Yeah for Grandma's. Here are a few pictures from the trip.

Grandma Sue with a sleeping Grace.

Joe's brother Dwight and his wife Kari.

I had a little fun one morning and had a photo shoot with Grace. Here are just a few of the pictures.

Life so far as Mom

It has been two and a half weeks since the birth of our daughter and while some days seem long, time has flown by. Last night at two in the morning, with my daughter dozing on my chest after eating, it hit me that while getting up three times every night for feedings gets really really tiring, she won't be sleeping on me forever. I need to cherish every moment I have with my baby. She is so small and precious and God has entrusted Grace into our care. And if you can believe it, I feel like I love her more and more every day. So, while at the end of the day the house may be a mess and I may be exhausted, if I have a happy baby girl, I have accomplished much.

And of course some new pictures per request of Grandma Mogford and just because.

Grace's wide eyed face. Makes me laugh every time.

Grandpa Mogford holding Grace at the hospital.

Great Grandpa and Grandma Everest came to visit us yesterday. This is their first great-grand child. It was great to see you guys.

Some new pictures of my beautiful baby. Isn't she adorable?

Grace

So, my baby girl is finally sleeping after keeping mommy and daddy up ALL night. It's a good thing she is so darn cute. Joe is in our bedroom getting a much needed nap after taking the morning shift and letting me sleep a little. He has been such a great help. I don't know how I would have managed this last week without him. This has also been my first real chance to sit down and blog a little. Since this is as much for me to remember as to keep grandparents and friends in the loop, I figure I would talk a little about the actual birth day.

After having Grace, I feel like having a long labor story is somehow a right of passage into motherhood. Mine lasted nineteen hours, fourteen of which I was on Pitocin (not fun stuff if you ask me). We were scheduled to go in Tuesday morning at 7:00 to have my labor induced as I would be seven days over-due. However, at three in the morning I awoke to a strange feeling and on a hunch, jumped out of bed and ran to the bathroom. Sure enough, my water broke. Joe said he hadn't seen me move that fast in months. So we loaded our bag into the car and drove to the hospital. Five hours and one viewing of The Incredibles (I love this movie) later, I was still barely having contractions. So my doctor decided to put me on Pitocin to get things moving. Wow did it. I really had hoped to labor as naturally as possible, but I also didn't want to wait for several days in the hospital for my labor to progress. I managed to hold out till 4 pm (almost nine hours after being put on the pain increasing drug) for an epidural. I know there are many sides to the argument, and I really had hoped to do it without any drugs, but I have to say, an epidural was a lifesaver. Having contractions every two minutes where every contraction lasts for about a minute and a half gets really tiring. Fast forward another five hours and it was finally time to push. Man was that an exhausting hour and a half. Grace gave us a little scare when she came out with her umbilical cord wrapped around her neck twice. She was completely gray and wasn't breathing. The nurses took her over to the corner of the room and of course everyone else in the room followed, leaving me wondering what was going on. I remember looking over at Joe and seeing a complete look of panic. It still chokes me up to think about those few moments that seemed like an eternity when I wasn't sure if my baby girl was going to be okay. They even called in the resuscitation team "just in case". But she finally took her first breath and made the most beautiful sound in the world, she cried. At two in the morning after trying to feed her, change her and pacing around the house, not such a sweet sound, but then it was.

At the hospital maybe around hour 11. Kind of amazed I am still smiling.

Grace Elisabeth Mogford was born at 10:29 pm, June 2, weighing 8 lbs 2 oz and measuring 19 3/4 in long. I can't believe how much I love this little girl, and it's days like today when I sure am thankful I do. :)

One proud Daddy. I think one of the best moments was seeing Joe hold his daughter for the first time. He told me that in that moment, it all became real and he had never felt a love quite like that before.

We named her Grace because, first of all because it is a beautiful name, and second because of the reminder of what our savoir did for us; saving us, giving us grace, and loving us more than we ever deserve. It's hard to imagine, but the Lord loves my baby even more than I do.

Her middle name, Elisabeth, is after Elisabeth Elliot, the author and missionary to South America whose husband was murdered by the very tribe she later helped lead to Christ. Her story and writings have been such an insperation to me over the years and her example of faith is definilty one I want to emulate. It also happens to be a family name on my side.

So welcome to this world beautiful baby girl.