Eliana Grace is here!!

Without further ado:



She has arrived! Six days early! At 12:57 on May 5th, 2009! She was 7 pounds, 9 ounces and 19.5 inches long. I was in active labor for about... two hours! See the previous post for massive amounts of detail, but here's the quick and dirty: Eliana has lots of dark hair and resembles Adessa. She is super soft and so tiny, we forgot how small they start out! She's sleeping lots and doing all the normal baby things, and it's been so fun to share a baby with Adessa.

Adessa got to meet Eliana a few hours after she was born, and was apparently somewhat cognizant of what had happened. "Cute!" she said! All of our preparation with her paid off: she knew there was a baby sister coming, and that the baby was going to need a carseat and a stroller. She still spouts these important facts whenever anyone remarks on her new status as a big sister. We're watching carefully, but so far, Adessa seems to be adjusting just fine to the whole situation. She's very protective of Eliana and prefers that others don't hold her. She doesn't like Eliana to cry, and will offer her binky or shout, "Milk, mommy!" to hurry me to respond. Sweet. We have been praying hard for ease in adjustment, so hope it continues in the same vein.


With Grandma Beck, who helped support us during the birth.


The sisters meet for the first time, with Grandma Lewis. (Eliana is the Lewis's SIXteenth grandchild!)


Our first family shot with the four of us. We'll work on it!



P.S. Just had to stick this in... the last picture of me pregnant with Eliana, sporting matching "mom and me" dresses that my mom made for herself and baby me, when she was pregnant with Nathan (my little brother).