Introducing Baby Aliza Kate

We would like to introduce baby Aliza Kate, who joined our family on Friday, September 11, 2015 and immediately stole everyone's heart!  It had been a long, hard pregnancy, but it was so worth it to have this sweet baby complete our family.

 We went in at 6am for a c-section at 7:30 and by then I had actually been in labor since Sunday afternoon and more than ready to have this baby!!!  I had been to the hospital the Sunday before when I first felt I was in labor, but my contractions were not regular enough to have her at 37 weeks.  I literally spent the next 5 days in bed or in the bathtub trying to keep her in until Friday morning's scheduled appointment.  I got one final (although I didn't get many over the previous 33 weeks) bump picture and one with my big boy on our way out of the door.

Aliza was born at 8:03am and before they even had her out I kept hearing my doctor say "this is a big baby with a lot of hair!"  He was NOT kidding!  

She weighed 8 pounds and 10 ounces and we were told she was 20.5 inches that day, but at our 2 week pediatrician appointment, she was up to 23 inches, so our pediatrician thinks she was actually around 22-22.5 inches!  She was only 1 ounce smaller than her brother was!

We were in a room by 10:00 and Michael went to get the proud big brother and Grandparents from the waiting room.  Needless to say, everyone couldn't get over her size or hair!  Haha!  Nicholas was in love immediately and so excited to get to hold his long awaited baby sister!

Yes, I dressed them alike for the occasion! It was cute and Nicholas loved matching Daddy! :-)

This was at the end of a long day, but we finally made it for a family picture around 9:00 that night.

We had a very long, hard first night and when my doctor came in around 10:00 the following morning I asked to go home.  He said that since I was already on oral pain meds and walking around well, I could go.  I am so thankful they let us leave early.  It made our transition home much easier and Nicholas was able to be with us after less than 36 hours.  Aliza came home in the same dress I did 34 years earlier and wore a family heirloom bonnet.  She looked like a little doll!

When we got home I tried to get some pictures of her in her fancy dress in her fancy crib, but she wasn't having it.

We did manage to get one of Aliza, Nicholas, and I in front of our stork and big brother sign.  This was my favorite picture of the entire weekend.  I laughed so hard at Nicholas showing his big brother muscles!

We are so blessed to have 2 healthy, beautiful children.  Six years ago right now I was taking fertility drugs and no one was sure we would ever have one, much less two children.  Sometimes it is just so  overwhelming to think they are both mine!  We have had a good 2 weeks at home and I will blog more about the weeks leading up to this post and the weeks after later.  I hope to get all caught up this week now that Gigi and Michael have gone back to work and it is just the baby and I at home during the day.