More on the birth of my niece

My little sister, Emily, was admitted into the hospital on Friday morning & moved into the first stages of labor. After battling Friday afternoon holiday traffic, Kathryn & I arrived at the hospital in Shelton around 5pm. The activity was definitely building & we quickly became part of the labor team consisting of my stepmom, Carolyn, & a family friend, Kelly. As night fell, Emily's contractions became more intense & closer together. It was amazing & scary to be there with her, watching her struggle to bring her baby into the world. After two hours of Ems giving her all, it was clear that the baby's head was not going to fit through the birth canal. The doctor assured Emily that as the mother, she had done everything she could do & called in the operating team to perform a c-section. While I know Emily was disappointed she could not bring Tillie into the world on her own, I thank the Lord that we have the medicine & experienced doctors to perform a safe surgery for both the mother & the child. We first saw Tillie when the nurse brought her into the nursery while Emily was in recovery. Her funny little conehead was a testimony to how hard her mom worked to bring her into this world!

Our brave, strong little sister, exhausted but happy.

And an exhausted but happy Grandma (trying out Tillie's hats).

Grandpa was pretty darn tired too! Uncle DJ stayed as long as he could, but had to go to work. He returned in the morning to see his niece for the first time.

I am so in love with this little miracle already!

Daddy is currently serving in Iraq, but we were able to get word to him fairly quickly that Emily was in labor. He even called in the evening & Ems talked to him between contractions! He has now heard of the birth of his baby girl & will be here soon for two weeks of leave with his new family. Congratulations Emily & Anthony on baby
Tillie Anne Maier!