Baby Ivy Belle

Our precious baby girl,

Ivy Belle James

 was born on September 27, 2016 at 7:55 am.

She weighted 8lbs 5oz and was 20'' long.  She came out sucking her hand and smacking her lips.  While they sewed me up, she filled up the operating room with all her sucking noises.  

The nurse put her on my chest and she settled right down.  It was my very first time doing skin to skin during a c section.  I could cry right now thinking of her teeny head tucked up under my chin and her squishy skin against mine.  I had zero pain this time during surgery, I was awake and able to enjoy every minute.

Of course they made comments about her big head as they pulled her from my belly, just like her siblings.  I was dying to see what she looked like but had to wait a few seconds for them to suction her.  I asked Chip "Who does she look like???", he laughed and said "Lebron????".  Her skin was dark and purple-ish and she had all this dark wet curly hair.  We were beside ourselves...hair????!!!! Our babies don't have hair!!!

They took us back to recovery and she nursed for about two hours.  My pain started to get bad and the next few days I had trouble keeping fluids down and she had trouble nursing.  our girl was a HUNGRY baby.  It took us a few days to figure it out, but ended up giving her formula.  It was just what she wanted.  These pictures were right after having about 20cc of Similac and it was the happiest she had been since she entered the world.

The kids came on the second day and were completely and totally in love with her. I have never been so happy and content in my entire life.  I'm so thankful that she is here and healthy and beautiful.  I guess it means I'm getting old, but birth just astounds me.  It's so incredible that she came from my body, perfectly knit together.  We are so blessed to be able to witness such a miracle...four times!  

We wrestled with her middle name for all three days in the hospital.  We just wanted to be absolutely sure we chose the perfect name for our baby girl.

Our Ivy Belle, 

our faithful beauty.