Grace Marie McCathran

Grace arrived last Tuesday, the 24th...we are very much in love with our new baby girl! I was induced about 7:00 in the morning on Tuesday and she arrived at 4:06 that afternoon. My parents had come in the night before so my dad stayed home to take care of Jake and my mom came with Ty and I to the hospital. Things moved slowly at first, but by around 10:00, I started having really strong contractions. I definitely wanted an epidural, but I didn't get one until 1:00 because there were several emergency c-sections that morning. When I got the epidural, I was dilated to a 5 and then 30 minutes later was at a 10 so the labor progressed quickly! My mom and Ty were both in the room with me and our wonderful nurse, Jennifer. Jennifer was actually the nurse that delivered Jake as well and she stayed three hours past her shift when Jake was born and was just amazing. We were so excited to have her again. With both Jake and Grace, Jennifer and I discovered we were doing the same Beth Moore Bible study so we got to discuss the Esther study I'm doing between contractions. What a blessing to have a Christian nurse! The delivery process took about an hour and a half this time, and Dr. Turner got there just in time for Grace to arrive. She had been delivering another baby right before coming to our room. Grace's shoulders did get stuck on the way out so that was a bit scary. As soon as she did come out, they called the NICU to come down and make sure she hadn't broken her collarbone. She checked out great and was very healthy. What I remember most from the delivery is after Grace was delivered, the nurses in the room kept saying, "she's big...really big...and she has lots of hair!" She was 8 lbs. 13 oz. and was 20 and 3/4 inches long so she is a big girl! I really thought she would be smaller than Jake who was 8 lbs. 7 oz. so apparently I just have big babies. Our friend Daphne had picked up Jake from my dad to take care of him the rest of the day so my dad got to see Grace right away too.

Dan and Daphne brought Jake up to the hospital later that evening so he could meet his baby sister. He did really well...he wanted to pat her and kiss her and then was ready to go play. He went back to our house with my parents who kept him the next day while Ty and I were still at the hospital.

Mom and Dad stayed until yesterday and were such an incredible help...I'm already homesick for them, but we'll see them again in a month or so. We're settling in as a family of four now--Ty took off this week and is being such a tremendous help. He's giving Jake special attention since feeding Grace takes up so much time right now as we get the whole nursing process down. Grace definitely still has her nights and days mixed up, but we're working on that. I think God gives new moms extra energy somehow. Under normal circumstances, I can't function with less than 8 hours of sleep, but somehow I'm doing just fine with a whole lot less right now.

We are a blessed family and excited for the new adventures for our family of four! Here are some of my favorite pictures we've taken of Grace so far...

Grace arrives at 4:06 p.m. at 8 lbs. and 13 oz.


Daddy and his baby girl (one of the nurses made her a hat with a bow on it--let the bows begin!) Our new family of four
Jake gets to hold his baby sister--he's very proud! She already loves the binky Grace and Mommy right before we came home from the hospital

Sleeping Beauty

My friend JoDee sent her this newborn tutu which I adore! This was my amateur attempt at her first photo shoot :)