Josephine Joelle makes her debut

It's taken me a few days to update our blog but as you can imagine having a new baby keeps you busy plus the fact that my hospital room didn't have wireless. If it did I'm sure I would have updated this immediately! :-) Unfortunately I can't quite figure out how to arrange the photos to a certain order but at least you can see her. There are a couple pictures of grandparents. We're missing one of Eric's mom and step dad. There's one of my sister Karen and niece Katie. One of me with Josie with cousin Oliver's little preemie outfit and Emerson's Uggs ready to go for a walk. One with Josie in her little snow outfit which is for a bigger newborn. That kept her cozy on the way home from the hospital with her little knit hat make by Lauren. One pic of her all snuggled in her bassinet with Aunt Mil's knit blanket on top.

Josie was ready to come before the induction date. My water broke the evening before so we went to the hospital on the evening of Monday 2/1. Things weren't progressing too quickly so I did receive some pitocin to speed things up around midnight. I got my epidural at 3am and at 5am was fully dilated and ready to push. By 7am, 2/2, our daughter was born. Eric, my parents, and our dear friend Tara, were all there to witness the miracle of new life. All is a blur after that. Lots of family was there to greet little Josephine over the next couple days and we went home on Thursday 2/4. Our first night home was a little rough with Josie confusing night and day. She slept much of the day with us struggling to keep her awake and even wake her up for feedings and of course at night she was alert and ready to play and wanting to eat frequently. Last night she did great with going back to sleep after feedings except after the 3am one. She then did sleep for a couple hours and after her last feeding went right back to sleep. Since Eric went to bed at 8pm and got to sleep pretty solidly for 7 hrs his morning started at 3am. He took Jo Jo for awhile and then I fed her and he headed downstairs to his shop to work. Now he's taking a nap. It's been great having my mom here and now Karen & Katie arrived last night and my mom will drive back with them to Santa Barbara on Monday. It's hard for us to believe Josephine is really our baby and wow, day in and day out she's our responsibility. What a sweet little gift from the Lord. Thankfully we know we can rely on the Lord for guidance and we have family and friends around to help. More pictures to come...