Sunday, January 3, 2016

Kaliyah's Birthday

The day started off early... real early...
Our 4 am induction got moved back... literally at 3:30 after we all were up they called to tell her to wait a bit to come in that there had been an emergency at the hospital... that was reassuring....

We grabbed McDonald's and literally got to the hospital by 4:30...

Our birth mom had been 4 cm dilated and 80% effaced for over 3 weeks... we assumed it wouldn't be a long labor...

We checked in and monitored the baby for a few hours... She wasn't quite as reactive to the contractions as they would have liked so they did an ultrasound to check the fluid level...

AWESOME!!! We got to see baby girl moving on the screen... and a beautiful strong heart beating, which was awesome!

 That was such a treat for us since we hadn't been able to be at any ultrasounds during her pregnancy  due to being in two different states.

The day was dragging on and all I could keep praying was that God would allow Greg to still be there for the birth... Originally the induction was planned for the 21st, leaving plenty of time for Greg to get back for Christmas eve services.  But with an induction on the 23rd, he now had a plane ticket set to leave at 2am on the 24th... we were sort of running out of time...

Bit by bit we got the induction process going by starting pitocin, getting an epidural, and then they finally around 4 in the afternoon, with the birth mom still at a 4 + cm, broke her water... We had been waiting for this ALL day... and within a half hour she was complete and ready to push...

We waited for the doctor, and then with our caseworker on one side, and me on the other holding her leg during pushes, and Greg just off to the side we watched this beautiful little pumpkin enter the world.

What an amazing gift from our Birth mom to us... being able to see her enter the world... watching her take her first breath... and listening to her first cry... Something we were not at all sure would happen... But I am praising God for the gracious heart of our birth mom to include us in these very special moments... Something we will treasure and remember forever!  


Kaliyah Joy just a few minutes old... Apgar scores of 7 and 9:)


What a big girl... bigger than we all expected... and a beautiful head of hair!!


Daddy holding his third daughter for the first time... Just before jetting off to Illinois for Christmas Eve services... Little did we know that his flight back out would be canceled and his time with Kaliyah would be so short... But we were praising God in the end it went quick so that he was still around for her birth!


Her first bow...


My very first picture with my new daughter!  Doesn't it kind of look like she is looking at me?  She is an absolute treasure!!!



We are absolutely so thankful for this sweet baby girl!  What an amazing and wonderful day her birthday was! We are in love!!!

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