The Beautiful Babies Are Here!!

We are very pleased to announce the birth of our beautiful cuties,

Joshua Vawter Stribling and Julia Prater Stribling

January 8, 2010 at 8:25 am

I cannot believe they are actually here. In our arms, and in our hearts. They are more than we could have ever imagined. We are beyond blessed, and beyond happy. It took us two and a half years to wait for these precious bundles to come into our lives, and I am proud to say, they were well worth the wait.

We got to the hospital around 6am on Friday, January 8th. My c-section was scheduled for 8am. They took us back to our "prep room" and started the process: changing, IV, etc. I, however, was a complete nervous, crazy wreck. I was absolutely terrified about this procedure. Its so weird when you know your delivery date. You have nothing to think about for days and days. I guess the good thing about going into labor is the excitement and spontaneity of it. With a c-section, you have nothing to do but imagine what its going to be like and just wait. Wait, and wait and wait. They then took us back to the operating room about ten minutes until 8. They left Jake outside and did my spinal tap and got me all ready to go. I was terrified of the spinal, but it was not bad at all. I barely felt it. And then almost instantly, I went numb from the waist down.

They brought Jake back in and he sat next to my head. Then my doctor said "you're going to feel a little pressure on your abdomen" and then Joshua was here! Literally- that quick! He cried immediately. He weighed 5 pounds, 3 ounces. Then about 20 seconds later, here came Jules weighing 4 pounds, 11 ounces. They were both born at 8:25, which was so neat. He was perfectly fine. She had to go to a transitional room for about an hour, because her breathing was a little "grunty", but other than that, everyone was fine.

I, however, had apparently developed preecampsia. I did not have it last Thursday when I went to the doctor, but they found it before my operation due to a urine test. So, that was a little scary and had to stay in the hospital an extra day to treat it. I have high blood pressure normally, and it was sky high for that day and some of the next. I was on morphine and a magnesium drip after delivery on Friday, and I was so out of it I don't remember much about that day.

We still had a hard time with names, and they were alive for several hours before we settled on Joshua and Julia. But, now that they are named, they couldn't be anything other than Josh and Jules.

We went home from the hospital on the 13th. We are so happy to start our little family!!

Here is a video of their birth. It was so funny. Jake and I were kind of in shock when they came so quick. and the anesthesiologist kind of took Jake and was like, "well, come on, start that video"! He started taking Jake around the operating room everywhere. And then Jake was the best cameraman afterwards.

And of course, nothing would be complete without my infamous slideshows!!