Mommy and Grace...

Daddy and Grace....

Grace's Visitors over the last 3 weeks...

Grace with Great Uncle Ned
Grace has a nice visit with her Great Aunt Karen and Uncle Ned

The Galloway's from Greenville (the new Little Chute) pay Grace a visit over the weekend

Carter Galloway tests Grace's time out chair and gives it a big thumbs up!

Aunt Julia stops to say hi and hold Grace

Here is Aunt Jessie with Grace. Dont they look cute!

Aunt Traci and cousins Carly, and Elise. They will have to teach her the ropes!

Here are all of Traci and John Elkins children with Grace. Issac, Elise and Carly.


Here is my friend Molly holding Grace she is just a little over a week old.

And of course Nana holding Grace in the hospital the day after she was born.

Here are Nana and Papa Callies and second cousins Dan and Nicole Cooley.

Here is Grace with John and Tiana Rownd. Thank for the great gift and the delicious meal we loved them!

Photos of Grace the day after she was born....

Here is Jon and Grace taking a nap it must have been a long few days for them! Wait a minute shouldnt I be taking a nap too!

Our little mummy! Isnt she just too cute! I think this was the last time she wanted to be swaddled now she likes to have her arms free.

Grace's First Visitors

Here were some of Grace's first visitors. Our nieces and nephews were so excited to finally meet there first cousin! Karen, Lee, Kristin and Brooke Callies also were the first to meet Grace. They waited from Thursday afternoon to Friday evening to meet her and did not leave the waiting room until she arrived. Thank for your support and prayers while we were in labor they truly gave us the strength we needed.

Grace's Arrival

Well it was a long last two and half weeks as we waited for Grace to arrive, but she reminded us all that it is never in our hands, but God's impeccable timing. I wanted to share with everyone our journey up until Grace's birth. As many of you know I wanted to do everything all natural and wait for Grace to come on her own. Well after going two and half weeks over my due date my doctor wanted me to set an induction date and did not advise me to go any further past that date. She did reassure me though that I could still go into labor before then and I was really hoping for that. Well the night came for me to head to the hospital to be induced and I was anxious, but excited that something was finally happening and I might get to see our little girl soon. Well as we headed to the hospital we received a phone call asking us if we could come in tomorrow morning at 5AM instead of that evening. I was thrilled I told Jon maybe this is a sign that I will go into labor tonight and not have to be induced!!! Well sure enough I went into labor at 12Pm that night, but my contractions were 10-15mins apart so moving very slow. It got to be 4AM and we had to get up and get ready to leave for the hospital I had Jon call and ask if we should just wait and see what happens with my contractions and not go int. They wanted me to come in so they could keep things moving along if they slowed down. Well they did slow down after getting ready and leaving they had completely stopped. When I arrived at the hospital Dr. King checked to see how far dilated I was and I was only 1cm and my cervix was still not ready to have a baby. So they put a foley balloon inside of me to help get me dilated to 3cm. After about 7-8hours of moderate contractions I was finally at 3cm. They waited an hour to see if I would continue to go into labor on my own and I did not so they put me on pitocin to help induce labor and get me moving along. Well after about another 8 hours I was finally at 4cm. They continued to up the pitocin every half hour to hour and my contractions were extremely hard at this point and starting to really wear me down after 10hours of hard labor. It was now 12AM and we have been up now for 24hrs. and I was still at 4cm and not dilating and further. I decided to get the epidural or I was never going to be able to push because I was so exhausted and the contractions were one on top of another and very very strong. After getting the epidural the medical staff came rushing in because my heart rate and the baby's were dropping. They took me off of the pitocin and moved me around a bit to help stabilize our heart rates. They got everything back to normal, but now my labor has stalled because I was no longer on the pitocin. At this point they decided that since my water still has not broken they would go ahead and see if that would help me continue to progress. Well I still was not moving along after two hours so they decided at 3:30AM to put me back on the pitocin get my labor to progress. The doctor to me though if I do not continue to progress throughout the day I would have to have a c-section. I was praying that I would have the Grace naturally and not have to have a c-section, but knew once again it was not in my hands. So I started to progress a cm every two hours. I was so hopeful now that I was starting to get closer to 10cm. Well once I got to 8.5cm I stalled and would not progress past that and the doctor told me the baby's head was starting to swell and so was my cervix. She advised me at this point to have a c-section. I looked at Jon and he knew I was very nervous, but reassured me that everything would be okay and we would finally get to meet our little girl. His strength and love really gave me what I needed at that moment to just be at peace with everything that had happened and was about to happen. I truly had to put my faith in God that this was all meant to be and if this is how Grace is to arrive into the world then this is the best thing. Jon was with me in the OR and was so encouraging and strong I just do not think I could have done it without him. When Grace finally arrived Jon brought her over to me to see her face and I was just in awe of this little miracle right before my eyes! Our little girl was born on August 7th at 4:05PM.

We just could not have been any happier with the staff and the process of it all they made everything so wonderful and easy for us. Everything went very smoothly and Grace is a healthy and happy little girl. Jon went with her up to the nursery to have her exams done and I joined them soon after. In the nursery another sign that everything was in perfect order and happened in God's impeccable timing was there was only one little boy in the nursery when Grace arrived and his name was Amazing. Now I dont know if you know many boys with that name, but God's Amazing Grace was in that nursery on August 7th 2009.

Here are some photos Grace right after she was born.

Jon gave Grace a beautiful mo hawk so she could resemble me when I was born. Thanks Honey!

Here is another photo of Jon holding Grace's hand and as he puts it when something so small grabs on so tight that's when you truly feel more needed than anything in the world.