My Fruitful Life: Our Beautiful Daughter is Here!

After a long and prayerful 9 months, our rainbow baby has arrived! She was born on Monday, January 13, 2014, at 5:52pm. She weighed 7 lbs, 5 oz, and was 20.5 in long. She has beautiful dark brown hair and big blue eyes. She was born naturally and without any drugs, like her big brother. This was a harder labor than I had with Blue Rock but it is all well worth it! I'll write about her birth and my experience in an American hospital another time.

We are proud and exhausted parents. We were able to leave the hospital the next evening, around 7pm. She did not pass her bilirubin test so her first doctor's appointment was when she was 2 days old. Her bilirubin was still really high but not off the charts. She weighed 6 lbs, 12 oz. We had to get blood work done to check her levels to see if we needed a medical person to bring us a light station for jaundice. Thankfully her blood levels were good enough to come in the following day to the doctor when she was 3 days old. She weighed 6 lbs, 13 oz. and her bilirubin levels were getting better that we don't have to go back to the doctor until she is 2 weeks old. My milk came in on day 3 and that should help her levels normalize according to the doctor. Overall, I had a wonderful experience and look forward to documenting her birth. A few highlights include around 6 hours, 22 minutes of active labor from when my water broke. Since I was going natural and drug free I was able to walk around, use the birthing ball, eat crackers, and drink water and juice until I didn't want anymore or delivered. I was able to push her out in 4 pushes, it took me an hour of pushing with my son. I had a wonderful doctor who was 100% supportive of a natural and drug free labor and delivery. She helped "fight" for my wishes for my birthing experience. I didn't want pitocin unless absolutely necessary and a nurse tried to give it to me I told her no thanks and to talk to my doctor. Other than that, no other drugs were offered until after I gave birth, which was kind of strange. Although healing from giving birth is another story. I'll write more when I write about that experience. One of my favorite memories will be Blue Rock's huge smile when he first met his sister. He was grinning ear-to-ear. He loves his sister and is one of the proudest big brothers I have ever seen. I wish I had a camera to capture his smile. After she was born, Blue Rock showed up with my parents, my older brother and his wife, and my sister and her husband. Her umbilical cord stump fell off today at 5 days old. We are so thankful to God for her safe arrival. Thank you all for praying for me and her. She is truly a gift.

Here are some pictures of our beautiful girl.