Greta's Big Debut

Grammy & Papa arrived from MN the evening of February 27th. Little did we know then, it was just in time for Greta's birth, and such a blessing. Her due date wasn't until March 10th, days after they were to fly home, so my concern had been that they would come and go before she was born and miss out on meeting their new granddaughter right away. We hoped that Grammy and Papa would be here when Greta arrived for many reasons - they would also stay with Gordon and Grayson while Gary and I were at the hospital.

At 6:15 the morning of February 28th, I woke up twenty minutes before my alarm with a stronger contraction than I'd been having. This is good, I thought, but knew it might just be the beginning of what could take a day or two to turn into actual labor (so I thought). So I got up and got ready to watch baby Cash. James dropped him off a little after 7:00 a.m. By then I'd had another contraction or two, but they were still pretty far apart and not overwhelmingly strong. About an hour later, things started to pick up. I asked my Mom if she would give Cash his bottle and rock him to sleep while I went upstairs to get ready - just in case.... Only a few minutes into a shower, I realized it was time to call Gary.

So about 20 minutes later, Gary and Maggie arrived. (Just as he had the day Gordon was born, Gary had ridden his bike to work - so he caught a ride home with Maggie from work, as she came to pick up baby Cash).
My mom snapped this picture of me right before we left for the hospital. I'm smiling, so it was clearly in between contractions, which by this time, had gotten noticeably stronger and closer together. Though I still wondered if I was going to be one of those women who got sent home for "jumping the gun."

Not so...at all! We checked into triage around 10:30 a.m. and baby Greta Brielle was born not much later - at 12:56 p.m. Long story short, this was the fastest, most intense labor I'd experienced, and for how quickly it went - I'm so grateful! (It really hurt this time!) But oh, was every minute worth it! Every discomfort and worry throughout my pregnancy also, very much worth it all! We now have a beautiful, healthy baby girl!
Welcome to the world, sweet little Greta!

Up until this day, Gary and I hadn't fully decided on Greta's middle name. We had a list, and there were three names we both liked, but my favorite by far was Brielle. Gary was still undecided on which name he most preferred; I love the name Brielle, in memory of baby Gabriel. It means "Of God" in French, which I believe is so perfect for Greta, our precious gift from God. Right after Greta was born, Gary was emailing the news to friends and family on his cell phone, and he asked me how to spell Brielle. He'd made his decision too, and so...
Greta Brielle she is!

Absolute joy, relief, euphoria...describe some of the many emotions of that very blessed day. But pure LOVE and GRATITUDE were what I felt most. We are so thankful to God for this beautiful baby girl ~ we absolutely adore her!

Greta Brielle ~ our new beloved baby.

More photos to follow...there are so many!!