Best Tax Day Return EVER...Grace Elaine Turner

8 pounds 1 ounce
20 inches long
perfect :)



















Today marks one week of Grace's entrance to this world and I must say, what a blessing she has been. Jimmy and I have been overwhelmed with happiness, appreciation of meals that have been brought to us, and gratitude for my mother staying here to help out. Let me tell our story of Grace entering this world...

Thursday, April 14th around 5:00 we headed to the hospital because I was SURE my water broke. I called the on call nurse for my doctor and she even seem convinced that it broke after me explaining what happened. I paged Jimmy and he came home with Wendy's for us to eat before heading to the hospital (I heard it's good to eat a meal before going to the hospital because you don't know when your next real meal will be after labor). Jimmy was soo excited and I was too, but very cautious...I felt like it wasn't real yet. Sure enough...it wasn't. They tested to see if my water had broken, and it had not. I was dialated at 2 cm and they sent us home. Needless to say we were both disappointed.

Around midnight on Friday, April 15th (TAX DAY) I began to have contractions. These contractions were REAL. They started out around 15 minutes apart and by 2:30 a.m. they were 4 minutes apart. The pain was unbearable for me and I finally woke Jimmy up to tell him we had to go to the hospital. Once we got to the hospital I was not even talking I was in soo much pain. They checked me and I was 5 cm dialated! By 3:00 a.m. I had an epidural and was feeling AMAZINGLY better. I was feeling so good that I was singing along with the CMT music station and munching on popscicles hehe.

By 6:30 a.m. I was already 9 cm! The staff at the hospital were surprised at how much I was progressing after having an epidural. Around 7:00 a.m. the doctor broke my water for me and shortly after that I was 10 cm. Things were looking GOOD and we were ready. My family shortly arrived and around noon they were sent off to lunch and the doctor had me start pushing with the intention that Grace would soon be here...well, like I said, that girl is stubborn :)

I began pushing at noon and FOUR hours later Grace had not moved at all. I pushed every two minutes and was more than exhausted. The doctor finally said that since she has not moved and he did not want to more the position of her head, that I was going to have to go ahead and have a c section. This is when the tears started...Jimmy thought I was crying because I was nervous about the surgery. Honestly, at that point, I didn't care how Grace got into this world, I just wanted to hold her. I was emotionally and physically exhausted at this point. They added more medicine to my epidural and just like that I was wheeled into the operating room.

Operating rooms can be scary but when you are doped up on medicine and everything is laughable...operating rooms are fun! I fell asleep during the c section and felt NOTHING! Jimmy had to wake me up to tell me when Grace was coming out...that's how out of it I was. Once Grace came out, Jimmy got quiet...and so did the operating room. Grace let out a little cry but then she quit. When they showed her to us, she was completely blue. Jimmy went over to watch to see how she was doing, and soon after she began crying and everything was alright. I got to bring her to the recovery room with me which was awesome :) Soon after she went to the newborn nursery to get checked out.

Everything else seemed to be a blur...we had wonderful family and friends come to visit. The staff at the hospital was stellar and honestly the whole experience was amazing. On Monday, April 18th we were able to take Grace home. Her first night at home was fantastic! Since then she has been such a blessing that it makes me tear up just writing this blog post. I know she will have her nights, days, and moments of fussiness...I know I will be in some pain here and there...but I also know that God richly blesses his children so we have nothing to worry about!

Thank you to everyone who has been praying for us :) We appreciate all of the support and will continue to post Grace updates to the blog.

Sincerely,
The Parents