Our Little Angel

We now have a beautiful and healthy baby girl!

She was born Monday December 1st at 4:03 pm and was just a cute little one weighing in at 6 lbs 11 oz and was 19 inches long.

Her name is Braelyn Rachel

Braelyn is pronounced (BRAY-lin) This is the name that we had picked out all along and felt good about but then at the last minute I started second guessing and we had to take a couple days of being with her to once again realize that this was her name. We also liked the name Braylee and decided that in naming her Braelyn we could call her Braely for short if we wanted to and that she could have the option of going by Braely or Braelyn. So in talking about her on our blog sometimes I might call her Braelyn, Braely, Braely Rae or whatever else :)

One cool thing is that on the website pickbabynames.com you type in a name and it tells you the name origin and meaning. We found out that Braelyn is an American name and it means "Beautiful". How fitting :)

I will explain the significance of her middle name but first let me start from the beginning...

So we went in to the hospital first thing Monday morning so that the doctor could turn her. I was nervous about this but tried to relax. The doctor put a bunch of ultrasound gel on me and I took a few deep breaths and Dr dug in and turned and turned and within about 10 seconds she had done a flip! I was so relieved! I felt some pressure but it went so fast and it wasn't bad at all. Good girl Braelyn!

Then they induced me and we began the waiting process of slowly upping the dose of pitocin and getting my labor going. It seemed like things were going pretty slow and the contractions weren't too bad but after the Dr broke my water the contractions were quite a bit harder. Not long after that I had a lovely epidural. Still things weren't progressing as fast as I wanted :) (You know how when the nurse comes in to check and your hoping that you will have jumped 3 centimeters and be almost there and find that you're still at a 3) Then it was crazy because I had finally gotten to a 5 and then I think within half hour or less I was fully dilated and ready to go! She finally decided she was ready to get out of there and then she didn't waste any time! I only had to push for a couple minutes and then she was here! It was such a relief to see my cute baby girl finally here and crying and healthy and to not be in labor anymore! Everything went pretty smoothly and fast considering that we started out the morning with her head up by my ribs.

We felt so blessed and grateful that everything went so well. Thank you for your comments and prayers!

Her daddy got to help give her her fist bath. Here she is after her bath with her first bow in her hair.

A little while later Dalyn came to meet his baby sister. He was pretty fascinated looking at her and said "Her hands are so small!" "She doesn't have any teeth!"

Then he decided to play a little game of Peekaboo with her (that's my mom holding her)

We also did a little gift exchange between the new brother and sister. Dal had picked out a little pig squeaky toy from the Dollar store so here he was showing it to her. He was excited to give it to her. Then we gave him a present from her (a Cranky the Crane set from Thomas the Train to go with his train tracks and trains) He was sooo excited! He kept saying "Thank you baby sister, thank you!"

Thus far Dal has been a pretty cute big brother. He likes to look at her and hold her sometimes, give her kisses, help give her her pacifier, and whenever she fusses he says "It's okay baby sister, it's okay" The other day he was holding her and she started sticking her tongue out looking for food and Dalyn starting laughing and said "She's trying to lick me!"

Here she is in her car seat on the way home from the hospital. She looked so tiny in that big car seat. Although this pictures makes her look bigger than she really is.

Before I finish this long post I wanted to explain the significance of the name Rachel. I have known for a long time that her middle name would be Rachel. In the October 2007 General Conference there was a talk given by Elder Spencer J. Condie entitled "Claim the Exceeding Great and Precious Promises". At this time in my life I had 6 months previously had a miscarriage and had wanted to get pregnant ever since then. In this talk he talked about Rachel from the Bible who wanted to bear children but was unable to get pregnant. Then he said this:

"The Apostle Peter testified that “the Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering” toward us (2 Peter 3:9). In this age of one-hour dry cleaning and one-minute fast-food franchises, it may at times seem to us as though a loving Heavenly Father has misplaced our precious promises or He has put them on hold or filed them under the wrong name. Such were the feelings of Rachel.
But with the passage of time, we encounter four of the most beautiful words in holy writ: “And God remembered Rachel” (Genesis 30:22). And she was blessed with the birth of Joseph and later the birth of Benjamin. There are millions on earth today who are descendants of Joseph who have embraced the Abrahamic promise that through their efforts “shall all the families of the earth be blessed, even with the blessings of the Gospel, which are the blessings of salvation, even of life eternal” (Abraham 2:11).
When heaven’s promises sometimes seem afar off, I pray that each of us will embrace these exceeding great and precious promises and never let go. And just as God remembered Rachel, God will remember you. I so testify in the name of Jesus Christ, amen."

This talk really touched me deeply and I felt the spirit so strong. I knew that I had to be patient but I felt a great sense of peace that when the time was right we would be blessed with another child. That just as God remembered Rachel, he would remember me. And he did. Five months later I got pregnant. When we found out that we were pregnant with a girl, I knew that her middle name would be Rachel.

Well there you have it. We feel so happy, tired and blessed to have our sweet little Braelyn Rachel in our lives.