IT'S A GIRL!!!!

Callie Grace Shands entered this world on Tuesday, March 5th at 2:56pm weighing 7lbs, 3oz and was 20 1/4 inches long. She has beautiful light brown hair and has completely captured all of our hearts. I ended up being induced a little earlier than I would have liked, but everything went perfectly. Jeff and I got to the hospital at 6am and by 7:00, I was all hooked up to the pitocin. I was still 2 cm and baby was still pretty high. Dr. Cole was supposed to come to the hospital at 8 and break my water, but at 9, the nurse came in and said that Dr. Cole was in the parking lot to come see me when she got called to do an emergency surgery at Baptist. The nurse said she wouldn't be there until 12 Noon. I was disappointed, but knew there was nothing that could be done about it and so I asked the nurse if my water could break on its own. She said that it could, but most of the time it doesn't happen on its own in inductions. So, we sat down and got mentally prepared for a long day. I decided to go ahead and get my epidural at 10:15 because I wanted to get it out of the way and my contractions were starting to get pretty strong. At 10:45, the nurse checked me and I was 3 cm and my water had broken on its own! That was an answer to prayer! At noon, Dr. Cole came in and checked me and I was now at 5cm and 70% effaced. I was a little disappointed with how slow things were going, but knew it was out of my control and I was feeling fine so I just enjoyed the quiet time with just Jeff. The nurse came in at 1:50 and checked me and I was up to 8cm. She started to get a few things ready in the room and I started to get more excited (if that's possible). Shortly after 2, I started to feel a lot of pressure and knew that meant one thing... I had to be 10cm. I called the nurse and she checked me at 2:10 (20 mins after she had checked me and I was 8). Sure enough, I was 10cm and it was baby time! Dr. Cole got there and I started pushing and 8 minutes later, Callie was here. Linda brought Preston and Emily up to the hospital when they got out of school. I think Preston was a little bit disappointed at first that it wasn't a boy, but he got over that REALLY fast and became as smitten with her as Jeff, Emily, and I were/are. In fact, he took my phone to take pictures of her getting a bath in the nursery and ended up taking a 7 minute video as well as multiple pictures. Before he left to go to the Shands that night, he came up to me and said "Mom, she smells so good." He told us the next day that he cried on the way to the Shands that night because he didn't want to leave her. Oh, my heart! My sweet baby boy was being so sensitive and loved his new little sister. We had several friends celebrate that night and the next day with us and it was truly a special time for us. We left the next day at 4pm (pretty much 25 hours after she was born). We were so anxious to get home and be a family of 5. More on that in another post. Since then, we've been completely overwhelmed with all the calls, texts, meals (amazing and delicious meals at that), and sweet gifts that have been given to us. Although Jeff and I did not plan Callie Grace, we are so thankful that God did and that He knows exactly what we need. We definitely needed this sweet baby girl!