Buffy: December 2010

Our last family of five picture

Our family welcomed baby Grace on Sunday, November 28th at 11:48 am. She decided to come on her own time frame (and mess up Mommy's perfectly planned birthday). I woke up early Sunday morning to my water breaking. For those of you who know me well then you know that all of my babies have been planned C-Sections and that I have never experienced a single labor pain...not even one.

Grace was scheduled to be delivered on Wednesday, December 1st. Her birthday would have been 12/01/10. For those of you who know me well...then you also know I have a "thing" about dates. You also know that I've tried with ALL of my kids to give them a cool birthday and NOT EVEN one time did that work out. Ethan's was supposed to be 02/02/02 and he was 01/21/02. Ryan was supposed to be 02/03/04 and he was 02/02/04. Molly was born on Friday the 13th (which honestly I think is kind of cool). But still not the day I had "planned".

So, of course, Grace decided to come on her own time frame! It was an "interesting" experience to have my water break. Especially since that is not something I've ever had happen with any of the other kids. It's a story we'll save for a more private conversation. Needless to say my "scheduled" c-section got moved up 3 days. There are a few bright parts to this story. My mom was in town for Thanksgiving weekend. She was able to be here and spend the first night in the hospital with Grace and I. She was tickled pink to be able to be here for Grace's birth. Thankfully, she'll be back around Christmas to help us out some more. The other great thing was Sam was in town! He was not scheduled to arrive home from Iraq until Monday or even Tuesday. However, the stars all aligned and he was home on Thanksgiving night. (I secretly think it was all his fault she came early because she sensed he was sitting around anxious. He mentioned the night before "ok, let's get this over with" and I think she was listening. Another daddy's girl!) I was super scared and nervous because my doctor was on vacation in Utah and so I was left for whomever was on call at the hospital. Thankfully it all went well and baby Grace was born healthy. My time in the hospital was mostly uncomplicated and now everyone is home recuperating.

Grace was born with a head full of blonde hair. Our son Ethan, who also has blonde hair, had been praying for months that his sister be born with blonde hair. He always says "Ryan has a sister that looks like him and so I want one that looks like me". I was pretty sure that Ethan was a freak of nature and that all the praying in the world wouldn't give us another blonde baby. Oh the faith of a child! He's so proud of his little sister that looks like him. He was also determined to have her name be Emily. He thought if she had blonde hair then she should also have a name that starts with "E". Thankfully, he handled it well when we told him her name would be Grace.

I'm just so happy knowing that (God willing) I will never be pregnant again!! I could almost drink to that!

Grace Anne

8 lb 13 ounces

21 inches

11/28/2010