Pictures of Quincey Nicole!

Quincey Nicole Welsch arrived 13 days early. What a nice surprise for me! It was while Nick and I were teaching primary 2 sundays ago that I started to wonder whether I was in labor. After about 2 hours after church was over, I was certain I was, and ready to head to the hospital. After getting to the hospital, it took only 2 hours for me to be fully dialated, so good it was that we left when we did!
There were a few small complications during the delivery process, but nothing that didn't turn out just fine in the end. Quincey's heart rate was diving to very low levels and not recovering well during my contractions. After trying several things to fix the problem, I was suddenly rushed to the OR. (Something I have not experienced with previous deliveries.) Meeting us in the OR were 4 doctors and 11 nurses...quite intimidating as I wondered how concerned I should be/ how serious the problem was. After getting into the OR, her heart rate improved somewhat so they decided to shoot for a quick natural delivery. Only...complication # 2: she was stuck. Strange. I've never had that happen before either. So without much time to waste with her heart rate still being a dangerously low levels, it was C-section time for me. It's amazing how when you're worried about your baby, you don't care if they cut you open or not. Although she had some trouble breathing at first, and was quickly sent to the NICU, she recovered well and has had no problems since. Phew!
Quincey is such a calm baby! I'm not taking this for granted because I know any day now she'll probably wake up and have a personality change! But for now, she is the sweetest little thing! We are in love with her! These pictures with the black background I took today. She's 12 days old. The others are from when we were in the hospital.

Quincey Nicole

Quincey Nicole Welsch was born Sunday, May 16 at 6:11 pm! She weighs 7 lbs 2 oz and is 20 in long. Pictures to come soon.

2 more weeks, miracles, and bdays

2 weeks and 2 days until I’m due. 13 more days until I get induced! I am counting down! Partly I’m anxious because I’m ready to lose the sciatica pain, the pressure-filled movements from a full-term baby inside, the stuffy nose that I’ve had for 9 months… but also I’m anxious because I just can’t wait to see her, hold her, kiss her!

Ella is so excited to share her room with the baby. Hopefully she’ll still be glad after she actually sees what it’s like. I think she will. She LOVES babies, our puppy, her dolls… anything she can take care of. And she swaddles all of them, especially our puppy! I really need to get a picture of that. I’m also interested to see how Jace interacts with her. I remember him with Ella. He was always kissing her and taking her picture with his pretend camera.

Can I also just share a miracle that has happened in my life lately… Seriously, if you had an understanding of just how difficult a problem my migraines have been over the years… it would make sense why I describe this as truly a miracle. With how much pain I am normally in, usually for several days each week, I had been uncertain whether it would be a good idea to become pregnant again. Ella just turned 4, so there is a bit of an age difference between her and this next baby. It took a while for me to come to the conclusion that I would try out one more pregnancy. During my first trimester, my migraines amazingly became less intense and less often. By the beginning of the second trimester I had none. NONE. I haven’t had a migraine for 6 months. Literally this hasn’t happened in years! Life has been so wonderful these past 9 months. I really have nothing to complain about very loudly as far as pregnancy goes! I am so grateful for this blessing in my life. I feel like for the first time I can assume that I know a bit more now about the cause, which I hope will help me find a long term solution.

So since my only migraine solution seems to be being pregnant… anyone out there need a surrogate mother? Nick and I think we’ll start a business… we’ll breed them, you raise them! Ha Ha.

On a lighter note…today Ella turned 4. She is such a sweetheart. Our Ella is constantly telling each of us that she loves us. She’ll just randomly come up and give us hugs and kisses and tell us that we are her very best mommy, or very best friend. She’s so loving. She also is someone who often does something nice for someone else, even when it involves personal sacrifice. For example, yesterday, she and Jace both wanted the vanilla and chocolate swirl pudding instead of the plain chocolate. It was just like her to tell her older brother Jace that he could have the swirl. One of my favorite things about Ella is that many times she has written us “cards.” It’s not anything you could actually read, just made up writing. But meaning… it has. She’ll “read” it to us, going on and on with a list of all the different things she loves about us. She’s already given us a heads up on what exactly she’s going to “write” on Daddy’s Father’s Day card. Our family wouldn’t be the same without Ella. She makes us smile.