Introductions

Well, it has been an amazing journey thus far, and I am so
thankful and hopeful for the future with this precious

gift from God. That sounds like a closing statement instead of an opening one, but I am hoping for this blog to be one of reflection as well as a daily recounting of little miracles as we walk with Elise. We are so incredibly thrilled to be her parents.

It has been 10 days since we have been able to hold her and have her here with us. Here are a few headlines and highlights from the first 10 days:

1. 1st time holding her...was so amazing! Nothing can prepare you for that. When they handed her to me, all purple and screaming, all I could say was, "She's so cute!" and "She's here!" The 2 resident doctors kept saying, "Big baby, big baby!" and the nurses in response to that kept saying, "Smalla, smalla," and "m'ash'alla." I was in heaven, holding on to her long skinny fingers and I thought to myself, "She looks exactly like I thought she would."

2. 2 hospital beds... We didn't want to upgrade to first class from our insurance, so instead we were blessed with a room for 2 with the option that there may be another person in there with me. It was a slow few nights because it was during the Eid Al Fitr, marking the end of Ramadan, and on a weekend, so that meant that John had a bed in our room too! What is hysterical is that he went to the apartment and pulled the sheets off of the guest bed and made himself right at home. In the morning, the nurses had to come into our room quite a bit to take my temperature, talk to me about the baby, bring the baby to me, etc. They all kept saying, "Sorry to disturb your husband," as he snoozed away.

3. 3rd time's the charm...This was the 3rd time I had gone to the hospital and had my contractions monitored, and the last :). I had been having pretty serious pre-labor contractions for weeks and weeks, and my doctor was always shocked that I hadn't progressed very much. The first time I was monitored was because I had a terrible case of food poisoning around 37 weeks. The second time was a week before I gave birth and we went because I had been having very regular contractions for about a week, but specifically intense that day. This last time, we were on our way to have John's birthday lunch, and they were really strong. We didn't go to the hospital until 8:30 that night, and they decided to put me out of my pre-labor misery :)

4. 4 days without ANY sleep...from laboring during the night, staying up with her in the hospital, and the first 2 days and nights home, I had zero hours of sleep. John was a champ and took the night shift the next few nights after that. What a huge blessing!!

5. 5 pushes...maybe that is TMI, but it felt like a big accomplishment to me. I had always heard that this can be the longest part of labor, but it was the shortest for me, thank God!

6. 6 Tacos Al Pastor... John and I split these at his 33rd birthday lunch, and they were wonderful. They say that spicy food can send you into labor, and maybe it helped some, but it was so great to get a little mexican food fix before the long night ahead. We also stopped by the mall on our way back into town and got some Marble Slab. You would think we were in Texas. :) Elise was born just 3 hours after John was, but her birthday is one day later since Beirut time is 8 hrs ahead of CST.

7. 7:00 weepies...for some reason, mostly due to hormone craziness I am sure, I have cried almost everyday at 7:00. Today John looked at me at 8ish and said, "You didn't cry!"

8. 8 different ways of putting her to sleep...Swing, bouncy seat, baby bijorn, John "walking her", cuddling her in bed, whispering "shhhhhh" over and over, car seat, pack n play. These are our main methods so far, and we try each and every one every single day. We have decided that our parenting style at this point looks more like trouble shooting than anything else, but we are learning more and more every day about what is best for our little world changer.

9. 9 lbs...or 4090 grams, which is what was written on her card for nursery bed/cart/3arabayye. Whatever you want to call it. It also says her name is "BB Snider,"

kinda cute. I was really shocked when I heard how big she was. I was preparing for her to be about 8 pounds, but couldn't believe she weighed that much. However, she is just long and skinny with no baby fat rolls or anything. 9 lbs, 21 inches , born on 9/21. She looks like a little mini to me. A little mini BB.

10. 10 hours of labor...really not too bad for my first.

So, that's that. Stay tuned.