Meet Baby Grace

Name: Grace Taylor Espejo

Birthdate: June 14, 2010
Time: 7:54 am

Weight: 8 pounds 1 ounce

Length: 19.5 inches

Hair: Dark Brown (and tons of it)

Eyes: Bright Blue

Birth Story:

The night before my scheduled c-section, I had a very hard time sleeping. We had some of our best friends over for the premiere of True Blood (YAY!!) and played rummy for a while before trying to go to bed. I just kept thinking about how excited I was, how it still didn't seem real, and how scared I was because I've never been in a hospital or had any kind of surgery.  The morning came and I woke up, showered, and we headed for the hospital.

Once we arrived, I changed out of my clothes, gave blood, got an IV, and waited for what seemed like forever for 7:30 to arrive.

Once Dr. Tyre came in, I knew we were ready to go. They wheeled me into the operating room around 7:40, and I got the spinal anethesia. After that, they let Isaac in and told him to sit down next to me. He tried to stand, but the doctors didn't want him to see the first stages of the surgery. Once they had me all cut open and were ready to take the baby out, they let Isaac stand up to take pictures.

I was sure he would faint because that's all he kept talking about before we went in. I kept asking him what the doctors were doing and he just kept saying, "You're OK". I still wanted to know what was going on, if I was already cut open, or if they were taking the baby out. Finally they pulled her out, and she gave us a big scare when she sucked in a whole bunch of fluid as they were pulling her out. They took her over to the warmer and Isaac went with her while they were trying to get her to breathe. It took longer than expected because of all the fluid she sucked in, so they had to put her on oxygen for a few seconds to help her out.

I was really nervous because I couldn't hear her crying or anything. Once she finally started breathing on her own, Isaac got to cut the umbilical cord.

After all of that, I finally got to see her for the first time!! She was absolutely beautiful.

The nurses took her to the nursery and weighed her while the doctors finished up with me. So much for the ultrasound technician's estimated weight of nine pounds seven ounces. She ended up weighing only eight pounds one ounce.

Isaac got to go with her and spend some daddy time with her while they waited for me.

Finally, when I got back into my recovery room, Isaac and the baby were brought in and we got to take our first family picture.

The day was crazy with all of the visitors and commotion going on, but we couldn't have asked for a better gift. All of our family and friends were able to come see her and enjoy this special time in our lives with us.