She is here.

Julia Shelly Messerly

6 lbs 9 oz

20.5 inches

Born on August 22, 2011 at 1:34pm

She took 30 hours and a couple of scares to get here, but all 6 lbs 9 oz are perfectly healthy and wonderful. The quick version: My water broke at 7:30am Sunday, we were sure we would have a baby by that evening. But I didn't progress hardly at all, even through hard contractions. Then the baby went into distress with some of my contractions and I still wasn't progressing, so at 2 am the doctor wanted to take us for an emergency c-section. But her heart normalized and we prayerfully continued. Garrett watched the monitor anxiously and encouraged me to rest. He was so supportive and strong, and I don't think he got much more than a blink of sleep all night. We had a few more scares that night and morning, but finally they told us we were near the end. Monday afternoon our sweet angel was born. The cord was wrapped around her neck which was likely the cause of her distress during some of labor.

What a horrific, spiritual, emotional, humbling experience.
But she is worth it, we are so incredibly in love with her, and would do it all again.