Announcing Baby Ella

My sister Tacy was due on June 2nd, so imagine my surprise when she didn't go into labor until Friday night.

I got a call at 2:30 AM that she had checked into the hospital and I was told to bring my camera.

On my way to the hospital I heard the song, "It just some time, little girl you're in the middle of the ride, everything will be alright, everything will be just fine." I started to tear up, imagining the next few hours of childbirth awaiting Tacy, as well as her future with Ella.

Cami and I arrived at the hospital at 3 AM, after my parents and two of Tacy's friends, Esther and Michelle.

All six of us helped support Tacy through the wee hours of the morning, laboring without drugs through intense contractions.

At 7 AM, Tacy's midwife, Janice came and told Tacy she was dilated to 9 cm and then she broke Tacy's water. She promised 30 min to delivery. But it wasn't that easy.

At 7:30 Tacy started pushing in earnest, and although she tried many different positions, the baby's head wouldn't pass behind the pubic bone. She was pretty well stuck.

Thus, the pushing went on and on with Tacy yelling, "Get her out!" and "I can't do this anymore." She was in some kind of intense pain I'll never understand since I've had epidurals with all three of my babies.

I do remember the exhaustion. And boy was Tacy exhausted.

Finally, on Saturday June 13th at 9:34 AM Ella Jane came into the world. They put her right on Tacy's chest and we were all in tears because we were overcome with the miracle of this little girl.

Even right now, as I'm writing this, Jaxon's looking at the photo saying, "Boy mom, Tacy sure looks happy."

Yes, honey. She does.



Here are more photos at my webalbum.