SO worth the wait!

We would've waited a whole 'nother 9 months if we had to, to finally meet our little Claire.  She is the most perfect beautiful little thing we've ever seen in our lives.  We still can't believe we get to keep her!  We feel like the luckiest two people on earth right now.  We can't wait for everyone to meet her.  We just want to show her off :)


So without further ado, here are some pics of our precious little baby girl, Claire Elise Grenko.  She was born on Monday, August 8th at 3:09pm weighing in at 7lbs 9ozs and measuring 21.5 inches long.

So how did it all happen?  How did we finally get to meet her?  We will never forget the whirlwind of events.


As I posted last, we were told on Sunday night they did not have any beds available for me to come in for an induction but I was second on the list for Monday morning so we set our alarm for 6am since that is when they told us they could potentially start calling and sure enough at 6:07am, our phone was ringing.  They were ready for us.  So off we went...


Last pic of the big ol' belly at 41 weeks and 1 day pregnant

Dad was so ready to go.

Last pic of the Grenko couple at home...when we return, we would finally be a family :)

We got to the hospital at 7:30am.  They took us to our room right away and hooked me up to begin monitoring the baby and my contractions.  Turns out I was having a bunch of contractions and didn't even know it.  In the hour I was being monitored before getting hooked up to the pitocin, I had about 12-14 contractions.  The doctor came in to check my cervix.  I was already 3 cm dilated and 80% effaced so they didn't even have to prep me for the induction.  I was off to a great start.

At 9am, they started the pitocin drip.  By 9:30am, the doctor came in and broke my water.  And that's when I started feeling the contractions.  By 10am, they were coming every 2-3 minutes and lasting a minute each. I was determined to have the baby without an epidural so I tried to stay as calm as possible and breathe through every contraction.  Patrick was an amazing support.  He made sure I knew he was there if I needed anything at all - something to drink, a back rub, a little game of words with friends - anything to keep my mind off of the pain.  I of course responded how any appreciative person would respond and told him I didn't want anything but for him NOT to look at me while I was having contractions.  Nice.  He kindly obliged.


The doctor came in to check on us before heading down to do a c-section for another patient at 1:15pm.  She said I was 5cm dilated and pretty much fully effaced at that point.  She said I could expect to start pushing at 4pm and that first time moms usually push for 1-2 hours without an epidural; 2-3 hours with an epidural (plenty motivation for me to stick with the no epidural plan).


After she left, the contractions really picked up.  Coming every minute and a half or so.  The nurse decided to turn down the pitocin to give me a little bit of a break.  At 2:30pm she came back in to have me switch positions since the baby's heart rate was going down with every contraction.  When I laid on my side as requested, I got an overwhelming urge to push - meaning my stomach was trying to push the baby out on it's own - with me trying to stop it.  I asked the nurse if the dr would be back anytime soon b/c I was having this feeling.  She wasn't sure so she had a resident come in to check me out.  At 2:40pm, the resident took a look and said I was indeed ready and ordered everyone to get into position.  We couldn't believe it was happening so fast.  We were beyond excited!


Last pic of the mom and dad to be...

The next half hour was unreal.  Next thing we knew there were 6-8 people in the room, lights and gadgets were coming down from the ceiling and everyone was ready for me to push.  With the first push, everyone but me could see the baby's hair - we were so close!  18 minutes later I gave one final push and  we finally heard the sound we had been waiting for for so long....our baby crying!  Patrick had the hugest grin on his face I'd ever seen.  He finally knew what we've been wondering for the last 9 months and I'll never forget what he said..."It's a girl, it's a girl!  Can you believe it??  And she's not even funny looking!  She's perfect!".  And boy was he right.  She's the most perfect little thing we've ever seen.


I of course got to hold her first :)

First family pic

Claire's first bath an hour after being born...look at that head of hair!

Then dad finally got to hold his little girl.

I couldn't believe how hard and fast you can fall in love with such a little thing.

Dad can't either.  He's a born natural.  The best diaper changer and swaddler I've ever seen.

He sure knows how to take care of his little girl.

One last family pic before leaving the hospital.

And we're on our way...

 I got to ride in the backseat with the cute little lady all bundled up.

And we finally made it back home.

 Claire's new home.

Can't imagine what it was like here before her.  

Thanks so much to EVERYONE for all of the kind words, support, and love.  This is such an amazing time for us and we feel unbelievably lucky to share it with all of you!