3 years ago...

Eliana was born. Here is her story

Matt and I decided that we were ready for kids. We were just waiting for God to decide we ready for kids. Wouldn't you know it, the day before we left for a trip for Italy we found out I was expecting. Like my sister Steph has said, you know how babies are made, but it is always a little surprising to find out it actually works!

My time in Italy was a lot of fun, I was tired and took lots of naps but over all felt pretty good. When we got back to the US we had our first ultrasound and saw Elie for the first time. I was 9 weeks along and she was this itty bitty baby floating around in a sea of black.

I struggled with some headaches, high blood pressure and swelling. Matt got the chicken pox when I was about 6 months along but I never got them. At 20 weeks we tried to get a peek to see if we were going to have a boy or girl, but Elie wasn't feeling cooperative. At 32 weeks the doctor thought she may not be head down so we had another ultrasound and this is where the fun began.

Turns out the doc was right, she was head up. Not only that, but she had very little fluid so she wasn't going to turn. So much for all the planning I had done for a natural birth. This was the first time I was faced with kids not doing things like I had planned, just God's sense of humor. We planned a c-section for 37 weeks, deciding at this point she was safer out than in. I went weekly for ultrasounds and that is when we discovered we were having a girl.

The day before my scheduled c-section, my doc called. She had a family emergency and had to go out of town. Would I be interested in coming in a day early to deliver? We rushed around and called family and went in that evening to meet our little girl.

The c-section went as planned. Elie was delivered healthy and happy, she had very dry skin from being in low fluid for a month and looked a lot like Elmer Fud. We loved her anyway. She was 6lbs 8oz and 20 inches. My recovery went well and Elie grew to be the little girl who we love today.