Sunday, September 07, 2008

1+1=5

elise lee tuan
september 2, 2008 | 8:06 am
7 lbs, 3 oz  | 19 inches

our little elise arrived 11 days early, on tuesday, september 2.  allan and i were so thrilled to finally meet her!  lucas and emma met their baby sister the day after she was born.  as soon as i saw lucas, emma, and elise together, i knew that our family was now complete.  the three of them will be the best of friends, with a few fights here and there, of course!

it all began with me feeling mild contractions around 8 pm monday night (sept 1) as i was dozing on the couch. i decided to head off to bed at 10 pm and was woken up by strong stomach pains around 2:45 am. i couldn't tell if they were just regular stomach pains or if they were labor pains, so i decided to wait awhile to see if they would get worse.  they DID. in merely 20 minutes or so, my contractions were 6 minutes apart and became extremely painful. i still wasn't convinced that i was in "real" labor, but i decided to play it safe.  allan and i headed over to the hospital around 3:45 in the morning.  i found out i was 5-6 cm dilated at 4:30 am, and by 5 am i was 7 cm dilated. my contractions were working! my water broke at 5:03 (exactly), and i got my epidural shortly after (whew!).  i labored comfortably after that while chatting away with my labor nurse, becky, who was a doula for 18 years. she was great! she gave me great tips and helped me through my contractions. at 7:45 am i was fully dilated and ready to go. tanya, my new labor nurse, was incredible. she and allan (and my doctor) helped me through 10 minutes of pushing, and at 8:06 am a perfect little girl came into the world...our little elise.  we thank and praise God for such a special gift from above.
:: at the hospital ::

:: our cuties ::

:: home at last ::

1+1=5

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congratulations! I hope I can meet your kids soon! Say hi to Uncle Lee and Auntie Christine for me.

Anonymous said...

Congratulations again! I hope everything is going smoothly at home and you're enjoying getting to know Elise. I can't tell if she looks more like you or Allan. Can you tell what her personality is like yet and did it match how she was in the womb? Hehe...I'm hoping my calm baby will be calm in the outside world. Hopefully we will get to meet your new bundle of joy in the not to far future! Take good care of yourself and I hope to talk to you again soon.

Michelle

ps. are ya sure 1+1 does not equal 6? =)

e and h said...

elise is absolutely adorable! congrats again!! hm...sounds like you had a very very very smooth delivery. i hope we're all so lucky when the time comes. :)