My new role as Mommy

Well, my baby girl is now officially 10 days old, and with each new day, I am loving my new role as Mommy even more. After a pretty rough labor and delivery, the first few days after Elliana arrived went by in a bit of a blur, and I find it hard to believe that more than a week has already passed since her arrival, expanding our family of two into a beautiful family of three.

All is going great here in the Berndsen household. Elliana has already surpassed her birth weight, and earned her first smiley face sticker at her doctor appointment. She entered this world weighing 7 lbs, 11.8 ounces and 10 days later she is already weighing in at 8 lbs, 8 ounces! We find such joy in watching her funny facial expressions, and learning to distinguish her different coos and cries.

Although we have no other baby experience to compare against, we are convinced that God has abundantly blessed us, as Elliana is a great baby who very rarely fusses or cries. She is perfect to us in every way, and we love to show her off to our family and friends. I must admit my motherly instinct is a bit in overdrive and I am trying my best to guard her from small children and anyone who might be sick. It didn't help to calm my fears when the doctor reminded us that January isn't a great time for a newborn to arrive with the many winter illnesses that are floating around. But, we are trying our best to keep her healthy despite mother nature.

As for my wonderful husband, T.J. is an incredible father! I have no idea how I would have adjusted these past few weeks without him. He has happily taken care of not just a recovering wife, but a beautiful newborn baby and has never once complained about any of it. Just thinking of how blessed I am brings tears of joy to my eyes and my heart well up with gratitude.

Thank you Lord for my beautiful and healthy family. I truly couldn't ask for anything else!!

Welcome Elliana!!!

She is here. At 1:12 am, Elliana made her way into the world, all 7lbs 11oz and 20 1/4 inches. Both mom and baby are doing well and all of us are extremely tired and extremely excited.

She received her first bath and tried to get her first meal. Now, mom is trying to get some food in her. I think we all will need our rest, but now after all the excitement, we don't want to go to sleep. I think we are all tired, but no one is too tired to get some photos.

We thank all of you for your thoughts and prayers today and we look forward to when she can meet you. And, since I'm the daddy now, I say, how about one more picture.

Epi - Miracle

Ashley has received her epidural and boy that stuff works great. Spirits are high and we are just trying to relax. We seem to be moving along quite well. It is getting late, so it might be a January 3rd instead of January 2nd baby. Only time will tell, and when it does (or shortly after), I'll tell you.

Enough Contractions for Everyone

Things are progressing. This is the machine that tells the story. It has two lines, one for the baby's heart rate and the other for Ashley's contractions. That second line is getting higher and higher and more and more regular. Looking at Ashley, I think she would agree with the machine.

Ready, set . . . Wait!

We are at the hospital. Our day started bright and early, 4:15am to be exact. The appointment was for 6:30am. We arrived on time, got right to our room and the room was prepared. By 7:15 Ashley was hooked up to an IV ( fluids only for now). Now, at 9:00, we are waiting for something.

It is all pretty exciting: I might get to see my daughter today. I'll try to keep updates coming when something is happening.