Taylor Elizabeth Bright

Well, we made it through the first week! Matt's having daddy time with Taylor, so I thought I'd take the chance to finally post...

So you may have remembered that little miss Taylor wasn't expected until August 26th, but I kept telling Matt that she was coming early or she truly was going to kick a hole in the side of my stomach and escape! In fact, I told my doctor just that week that she was coming early (I don't think she believed me). I actually went into the hospital to be monitored on Thursday because I was having consistent contractions in an hour span. But they were only Braxton-hicks contractions and they sent me home in under an hour.

I went to bed thinking I'd probably go into labor that night, but tried to psych myself out by listing off all the things I needed to do that weekend (didn't work). Around 2:15am I woke up when my water broke. I woke Matt up who jumped out of bed and threw some shorts on. We finished putting our things in our hospital bags and I took my time getting ready - I wasn't going to go through labor without shaving my legs first! *This made Matt just a little anxious :)

We got to the hospital just before 4am and when they checked me I was already dilated to a 4 - almost 5. Just before 6am I was fully dilated but I didn't start pushing until 7am because I was feeling good and they just let the contractions and Taylor do most of the work. Then 3 pushes and Taylor Elizabeth (Elizabeth being the family name from Grandma's mother) was born at 7:21am on August 1st! I had such a lucky and smooth labor and delivery and although Taylor was 3 1/2 weeks early, the doctor said the only sign that she was a premie is her feet don't have wrinkles all the way down. She weighed in at 6lbs 13oz, 18 1/2 in.

Taylor accommodated everyone by showing up for her own shower that Sunday, much to all the out-of-towner's pleasure. We ended up having the shower at our house and had a great turn out to meet Taylor. My parents stayed a couple extra days to help with baby projects and run errands because we had planned to do a few more things that weekend before the shower. But lucky for us I just knew she was coming early so I had quite a bit set up already. Kelly was also great help and finished cleaning up our house for our guests (and taking care of our dog :).

Matt and I have been settling in and loving our new baby girl! She's been great this first week and we've already been out and about a lot with her (walks, shopping, out to eat) and she couldn't be better. Taylor's already learned 2 tricks...kicking to roll to her side and mountain climbing up my chest! Unless something comes up, we do plan on making the Bull Family Picnic/Kelly & Paul shower event with little Taylor in tow! Here's the link if you want to see more pics of Taylor http://picasaweb.google.com/elissawiles.

Love,
Elissa, Matt & Taylor