The perfect Christmas gift

So everyone has been asking me where we got our name for our sweet bundle of joy. Dusty and I would randomly think of children's names on road trips, etc. and Natalie was one of the names on our list. It is one of the names that always stayed on the list and when we got pregnant, we both still really liked it and decided that we wanted it for our girl name. After that decision we decided to look up the meaning of Natalie. Natalie means "born on Christmas day." After we found that out, it was too perfect since Natalie's due date was Christmas day. She is the perfect, little Christmas gift and we even got to open her early! Grace is one of the names we tossed around for a middle name option. I liked the way it sounded with Natalie, very pretty and feminine. I think it is even more perfect now because I can see the grace of God in my life through a wonderful, healthy pregnancy; a healthy, successful labor; successful breastfeeding; and a healthy, beautiful baby.

Four Generations

Grandmother and Pa were here over New Year's. Natalie grunts and groans in the morning just like her Pa.

Call in the Reinforcements!

Grandpa and Grandma were here over Christmas. We have called in the Reinforcements since then too! Grandma holds Natalie every second she's not nursing (Grandpa gets a turn sometimes.)

Labor

"When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world." John 16:21

Well, I've forgotten some of the anguish except when I talk to others about it and the memories of labor pain come flooding back to me. Overall, though, I had a great labor and there is a lot of joy. God was faithful and gracious to me. Labor started Sunday morning around 10 a.m. I woke up from a late morning nap to contractions that were already 5 min. apart, lasting a minute each. They were not too intense at this point though and Dusty and I ran errands, ate lunch, and went for a walk over the course of the day. The contractions stayed 5 min. apart all day but progressively got stronger. Around 6:00 p.m. they were 3-4 min. apart and much more intense so we decided to leave for the hospital. When we got there I was 5.5 cm dilated and 100% effaced. I continued to progress well. I think Dusty and I both thought "this baby is coming tonight." The only thing I could think about through each contraction was Psalm 23. I kept repeating these three things: The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want (medication). He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. I definitely didn't feel "still" at the time, but I was clinging on to His promises and trusting that this pain would not continue forever. I ended up being in transition for two hours and then pushed for an hour and forty minutes. Dusty was such an encouragement to me during the trying time of pushing. I knew he was watching Natalie's head coming out and he would have such a huge smile and after each push tell me what a great push I just gave. It really helped me to keep trying even though I was begging God "let this be the last push." She finally did emerge at 1:38 a.m. on Monday, December 17th and she was so pink and chubby and beautiful. Seven pounds, eleven ounces, 20.5 inches, and a full head of hair! By God's grace and Dusty's encouragement, I was able to have a natural childbirth. I did have to have an episiotomy at the very end to prevent an upward tear. I also lost a lot of blood and had to be given saline to get my blood volume back up. I was really weak but after a week and a half of sleep and good cooking from George and Julie Robinson, I started to regain my strength. Doing great now.

The beginning

The motivation for starting this blog was the birth of our beautiful daughter, Natalie Grace. Anyone who wants updates on her life, as well as our lives, can check in occasionally to see what we are up to.