Welcome to this BIG world Jordyn Clare!

Roll out the red carpet................

Jordyn Clare has made her final debut!!! Our little Princess was born on October 3, 2013 at 12:35PM! She was a healthy 7lbs 13oz and 21 in long.

The morning of October 3rd, we were both up bright 'n early getting last minute things put together before we had to be at the Hospital at 10AM. Check in was at 10AM and my scheduled C-section was at 12PM.

Before leaving for the hospital, we kissed eachother at the door knowing that when we came back home, it wouldn't be just us two! We snapped a quick picture at 39 weeks....

And we were off to have a BABY!!

We got all checked in, got situated in the prep/recovery room; got my IVs started, monitored the baby, met with the anesthesiologist and Nursery Nurse, got Mark in his surgery room attire (ha ha!) and just....waited!
Here are a couple pictures before we went back into surgery. At one point the nurse had to come in and check on me because by the monitor up front, she could see that I was either vomiting, crying....or laughing! Laughing it was!! Daddy-to-be was putting on a show.

And our very last picture together as a family of 'two'....

We're ready for you Baby J!!! At exactly 12:03PM my OBGYN showed up, asked me how I was doing and if I was READY....we were more than ready so they went ahead and walked me back into the surgery room while Mark waited in the prep/recovery room. He couldn't come back until they had my epidural started. The epidural was not as bad as what I had anticipated...for one, I did not SEE the needle they put in me and two, the nursing staff were amazing and distracted me and held me in position.

They got me positioned on the bed, put the curtain up, and kept asking me if I felt numb yet...in the meantime Mark came back and sat by my bedside. Finally, I started feeling really numb but still had some "feeling" when they touched...my doctor then informed me she was clamping a huge clip onto my skin, eek!

Let the final countdown begin!!!!!!

Between being cut open and them getting her out, I began to feel very nauseous/hot but was hesitant on saying anything because I didn't want the meds that made me groggy/not remember things! Well the anesthesiologist noticed my face was red so she asked if I was doing OK and I said I felt alittle nauseous so she gave me something that made me feel better and I did still remember everything!

It was quite interesting hearing the discussion of the doctors behind the curtain saying "oh there's her little butt" and "oh she's all tangled up in here" and "you have really good anatomy" and once they got her out "oh look at all that HAIR"....pull down the curtain already!!!

This was one of our first sites....truly love at FIRST site!

She didn't even cry much out of the womb. At first we were questioning whether she had vocal chords ;) They put her under the heat lamps, cleaned her off, weighed and measured her, swaddled her up in a blanket and handed her over to daddy...

We thought this little girl had daddy wrapped around her little finger BEFORE she was even born...he's even tighter around her finger now that she's actually here!!

 

He brought her over by mama and we got our first picture as a family of 'three'!

 

Soon after I got put back together(ha ha) they wheeled me back into the recovery room and thats where I got to HOLD my baby girl, have some skin on skin with her, and fed her.

We are head over heels for this little girl and SO in love. We have been BLESSED!!!

She also got a bath while we were in recovery. She didn't seem to mind it too much at all!

After 2 hours in recovery, they wheeled me up to our room where we'd be staying for the next....THREE days! I honestly thought I'd be crazy bored being in the hospital for that long but it was one of the best hospital stays ever and there was not ONE moment that we were bored because we were either loving on our baby OR our other blessings (family and friends) accompanied us! There was not one moment that we were 'alone', except in the evenings.

Grandpa and Grandma showed up around 9:00 that evening and could not wait to get their hands on their new little granddaughter!

 

They stayed for alittle while that night and then headed back to our place where they'd be staying for the weekend...well, my dad anyway....my mom stayed with us that whole week!

That first night I don't feel like I slept at all!! We did have her go to the nursery every night that we were there, but I feel like I was so in the moment that I couldn't even fall asleep and she came in every three hours to eat. Mark stayed with us every night that we were there which was so nice! He soaked up his bed time and morning cuddles with our sweet girl.

On Saturday, our nurse was in our room taking vitals and we heard a knock on the door and so the nurse went to see who it was and she came back in saying we had surprise visitors. Mark got up and went out there to see who it was and came back in saying it was a couple friends of ours that he works with. After the nurse was done taking vitals, I tried sitting up on the side of the bed to greet them, and through the door they came!

They were NOT who he told me they were!! I was in utter SHOCK....it was our long lost best friends from up in Iowa! They are {huge} Iowa Hawkeye fans and they SOLD their tickets to come down to see us!!! We felt very special! Leave it to them to come down and make a surprise visit! (they are always SO full of surprises!) We all exchanged hugs of course and I think I was still speechless and so in awe.

Not only did they surprise us with a visit, but also my two favorites----Dairiette (ICE CREAM) and Larita's (COOKIES). Yes, they brought ice cream down from 4 1/2 hours away and kept it frozen on dry ice...simply amazing, huh??

Words cannot describe how thankful we are for these guys and how important them and their two little kiddos are in our lives! I can't wait to watch our kids grow together.

They stayed for the day and then headed back up to Iowa to their kiddos! It was SO nice to have them down here and get to meet Jordyn!

I do have to say, I was very spoiled in the hospital!! I got Dairiette, Larita's cookies, Pizza Hut, Dunkin' Donuts, and Texas Roadhouse!! And aside from all of that, I did have some hospital food, which wasn't too bad :)

We had alot of other friends come and go which was really nice. Sunday was here before we knew it! Time to go home, yay! The checkout process took about all morning, from 8AM to about noon. Finally we got all packed up, snapped a few 'going home' pictures, and our nurse walked us out to the durango and we were off!

HoMe SwEEt HoMe!

Chiefs football and his baby girl:)