Stella Snow Romney

On February 11, 2013 at 9:06 P.M. Stella Snow Romney joined our family. She was 9 pounds 1 ounce and 21 inches. All three of us are quite tired, but doing very well and are very happy. I wont give you all the TMI details, but will give you a brief idea of how things played out.

At 6:00 P.M. Sunday night we went to the hospital to start the induction process. We went to  the Ohio State University hospital and we were so impressed by the care we received. Every single nurse who helped us was so nice and encouraging. The two residents who worked with my OB were amazing and Dr. Markham who delivered Stella was great. I felt very well taken care of the whole stay. She was measuring large in the ultrasound and I was terrified of letting her get too big because I didn’t want to increase the chances of c-section or shoulder dystocia. So we went in 5 days before her due date to get things going.

Now, I have said a million times that I’m not one to post pictures of my pregnant belly (especially on face book). I was huge and it was a tad discouraging to see how huge I was during pregnancy and I wasn’t about to share that with my entire high school on facebook. But now that I’ve got that cutie out of me, looking at the pictures is kind of humorous to me. I can’t help but see it and laugh in amazement. Now that I have this princess in my arms I can see why I was so big. She is a sturdy little girl. So, I am going to give in and post a picture of my belly at the hospital right before I changed into my gown. But only on this blog and only because I think it would be a shame to have no record of it at all.

Then we settled down for a long night hoping the medicine to get my body ready for labor before they started the Pitocin would do its job ( I wasn't dilated at all when I went in). Hospital gowns are so flattering, aren’t they?

To make a long story short: 24 hours later I was ready to push. I got an epidural before I was really in much pain and basically slept through labor. It was awesome! Poor Benj got much less sleep than I did because he is a pretty light sleeper and there were so many sounds, beepings, and people coming in the room all the time. At a quarter to 7 the next night I was ready to push out a baby! The next two hours made up for the easy previous 24 hours. The 2 hours of pushing was brutal. She was just so big! It was pretty unbelievable when she finally came through. It’s still hard for me to comprehend that I carried her for nine months and then delivered her. For so long, she was just an idea and something to look forward to and now she is such a real person with such a personality already that its hard for me to connect the dots in my mind between being pregnant and Stella as she currently is. Here are some shots a few minutes after she was born.

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It took us a little while to name her. We pretty much knew all along, but we just didn’t want to commit until we were sure. You might be wondering why her middle name is Snow. I know it’s a little unusual and we worried it was a little too whimsical, but it just felt right and we like it. Snow is the maiden name of Benjamin’s grandma. A little while back, Benjamin’s mom and grandma put together the history of his great grandma Wanda Snow. I read the whole thing and really enjoyed it and loved learning about this neat woman. So I guess you could say she is named after all the great women in the Snow family.

Here are some more pictures of Stella in the hospital, but after she got a bath:

I just love this video of her staring at her dad. Try to ignore the nurse in the back ground asking me questions.

Poor Benjamin had an exam to take this week, so he was trying hard to balance studying and being a new dad. He did lots of fawning over Stella, cuddling with Stella, changing diapers, and letting me rest. He did very little studying and sleeping. He took the test this morning and passed! Now he has spring break for the rest of the week, so he can spend the whole week at home with me an Stella.  I love these pictures of him studying and holding Stella at the same time.

The following pictures are right before we were discharged from the hospital:

I love the little faces she makes!

And don’t you just love that hair!?!

Big Yawn

First nap at home:

We can’t get enough of this little girl. Its probably going to be the Stella show on this blog for a while. We are so grateful for everyone who has helped us and prayed for us along the way.