Eliza Rose

 

Eliza Rose Swift arrived on May 22, 2014 at 7:27am.

My contractions began at 11:53 pm the night before. I labored at home until 5am, until we headed to the hospital. By the time we arrived I was already 6cm dilated and within an hour progressed to 9cm. By 7am I began pushing, and after 5 contractions little Eliza Rose was here.

The labor and delivery was everything I wanted. She was early, as I dreamt she would be. I delivered her naturally in a short amount of time. She began nursing within minutes of being born. My momma was there along with Mr. Christopher and our doula.

She was named after her two great-grandfathers who both passed away during my pregnancy. 

Her first name [Eliza] comes from Psalms 116:7, a verse the Lord gave me to cling to before and after the death of my Grandpa Jerry in December. Eliza means a bountiful gift from God, and our little Eliza was a reminder of the bountiful gifts the Lord has/had given us in the midst of the difficult season of his sickness and death.

  Her middle name [Rose] was the middle name of her Great-Grandma, my Nana. My Nana passed away four years ago. My Papa loved her so much and missed her deeply after her passing. In May when my Papa passed away, my family found a list of baby names he had been writing down for our little girl, his first great-granddaughter. He had a lot of names on the list {Amelia, Laurel, Eva, Maddie...} but most of them had the middle name Rose, a name that reminded him of my Nana. Once we saw his list, we were hooked on Rose as a reminder of my Nana but also as a reminder of my Papa.

Eliza is beautiful and perfect.

We are terrified parents, trying to figure out this crazy world of parenting.

We spent the first week hiding out in our home, welcoming daily visitors.

This week we are trying to make a few adjustments here and there to feel more "normal," and next week we are going to attempt to figure out our new normal, our new life with this little girl.

In the meantime, we're watching lots of Sherlock and the Office. 

Please pray for her [and us!].