Welcome Mary Sophia

 On Wednesday, May 9, I woke up around 1:20am having strong contractions about 8 minutes apart. This continued throughout the night, and by morning we were confident that this was no false alarm but the actual start of labor. It was quite exciting to know that soon we would meet our baby. However, as the day progressed, the contractions didn't change much. The midwife thought this was probably because the baby wasn't in an ideal position. We tried different things to help the baby into a better position, but after 40 hours of labor and 4 1/2 hours of pushing, we ended up having a C-section. Needless to say, we were exhausted, but happy to finally meet our little girl. Mary Sophia was born at 5:51pm on Thursday, May 10. She weighed 7lb, 6oz, was 21in long, and was absolutely beautiful. Although labor and delivery didn't go as we hoped, the end result of a healthy baby and mom was exactly what we wanted and we greatly appreciated the support of our midwives throughout the process.

We spent the next few days recovering in the mom and baby section of the hospital under the care of wonderful nurses.

This picture didn't turn out, but I couldn't resist including it because Mindy and Nikki were our two favorite nurses. Mindy was the afternoon and evening nurse both Thursday and Friday and Nikki was the night nurse both days. Although all the nurses were great, they stood out as particularly good and we really liked both of them.

We returned home on Saturday. It was strange to leave the hospital and be out in the world again, but we were glad to be home. Dave and Gayle meet Mary on Thursday night at the hospital, but then they went over to the coast for a few days to take care of some things while we were in the hospital. They returned to Eugene Saturday night. They spent the next week coming by for most of the day and helping us with household chores and holding the baby.

My first Mother's Day card from Joshua and Mary with the flowers and card from Dave and Gayle to celebrate Mary's birth and Mother's Day.

Dave prepared killer dinners every night full of protein and plenty of vegetables; everything was delicious.

Mary also got beautiful flowers from Jim and Jayne and a couple plants from the neighbor.

Mary with Grandma and the quilt she made.

Mary is a sweet, generally content baby. She has the cutest facial expressions and recently began pursing her lips a lot. We are delighted to welcome her to our family and so glad she is finally here.