Yesterday, Labor Day, Ben I and were both off work. Students at my school started back today, and Ben would be back at work at the credit union. We had big plans for Labor Day. At the top of my list, sleeping until I wake up. This is generally at the top of my list on any day I don’t have work or church, and Ben knows how serious I am about my sleep. So I told him the night before, take the dog downstairs when they both woke up and LEAVE ME ALONE! This is not a joke in our house. Then, once I awoke mid-day we were planning to detail our cars for the last time before baby, go grocery shopping, and spend some quality time together.

At 10:16am I heard my phone buzzing like crazy. In the groggy state that I was in, I thought it was my alarm that I must’ve forgotten to turn off and angrily rolled over to turn it off. I saw that it was actually a phone call from a number I didn’t recognize, and when I looked at my text messages, I had 4 from birth grandmother:

6:11am Happy Labor Day!!!!

Water broke an hour ago

7:50am Baby about to be here. C section in a few minutes.

9:45am Baby weighs 6lb 10oz. 19 3/4 inches. Born at 8:48. Both doing well. Lots of hair!

I barreled down the stairs to tell Ben. He knew something was up because I never go down the stairs quickly. I am too clumsy and usually too asleep to move fast. I don’t remember what I said to him, but I blurted it out, read him the text messages, and by that time had a voicemail message from our caseworker. She was on vacation and didn’t have her work phone so I didn’t recognize the number.

We had trouble figuring out what sequence to do things in. I had already packed baby girl’s bag, so we didn’t have to worry about her. I also had made a list of things we would need to remember to grab last minute (which came in really handy). While Ben got a shower, I called a friend to tell her we needed a ride to the airport ASAP. Then I booked flights for the two of us for 1:10pm. We got a direct flight, so that put us landing in Salt Lake by 4:10pm. We called our parents and siblings next, then notified our employers and my substitute teacher. We left for the airport at 11:18am. Got to Utah by 4:10pm. Checked in to hotel, ate at Chic-fil-a, got to hospital by 6pm. Not bad for booking a flight the same day you have to leave.

We spent an hour with paternal birth grandmother and grandfather, talking, figuring out how things were going to work. We wanted so badly to see our girl, but we technically don’t have any rights yet. Birth grandma was working to at least let us get to see baby girl in the nursery through the glass, but we didn’t know if we would get to hold her.

This Godsend of a grandmother worked it out so that while birth mother was getting ready for bed, we were able to see baby girl in the nursery. We could not stop staring at her. We watched the nurse change the diaper, weigh her, listen to her heartbeat, and then swaddle her. Unexpectedly, birth grandma even wheeled baby girl out in her bassinet and took us to a sitting area where Ben and I each got a turn to hold her and take some pictures (ok, I got to hold her twice).

Here is pic of us looking through the glass at her in the nursery (with nurse and birth grandma):

 

Most of our friends have seen on Facebook the pictures of us holding baby girl, but I will repost them here as well.

Well that’s about all I can handle today. More to come…