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.