Welcome Amy Grace

On August 8th, we welcomed Amy Grace into our family at long last.  She was born at 6:52pm at Providence in Everett, weighing in at 8lbs 6 oz and measuring 21 inches long.

We were admitted into the hospital very early that morning (about 4am, I think) and spent the day with Steve and Debbie encouraging Mandy through her labor process.  About 1pm, Mandy made the decision to get an epidural and by 2pm both Mandy and Steve were napping to recapture some strength for the final push.

After receiving the epidural, we started to see a few dips in the baby's heart rate, especially when the nurses tried to roll Mandy onto her left side to keep the epidural working effectively on both sides. Due to the dip, they started having Mandy wear an oxygen mask.

Debbie was starting to get anxious for Boo (the name we used for the baby before she was born) to make her grand arrival, so she staged this photo for us.

Because Amy had been overdue and the amniotic fluid had shown signs of meconium, the medical team included a NICU unit who would quickly care for Amy if there were any complications presenting at birth.  After about an hour of pushing, our little girl finally joined us.  She didn't cry right away, but once they got her a little cleaned up, she made her presence known and passed the rest of her tests with flying colors.

Welcome to the world, baby girl!