The DeLorme Family: Graceyn Kathryn

     After 9 long months of waiting she is here!!!! Graceyn Kathryn DeLorme was born on March 21, 2014 at 2:38 p.m. She weighed 7 lbs 4 oz. Her parents and siblings could not be more happy to blessed with such an amazing and sweet little girl!
      I went in on Friday, March 21st for an induction. I am not going to go into many details about her labor and birth. It started out as a great experience. I chose to get an epidural like I did with Ashlyn and Dawson. Unfortunately, the epidural did not take at all. I essentially gave birth without pain meds. I was not prepared for that at all. So, it's safe to say that it was the worst pain I have ever experienced in my life. But, I survived and and managed to make it through. Her birth was definitely the hardest of all three.
One of the best moments of my life, was when she first was born and the doctor had Joey check to see if it was a girl or boy. The entire pregnancy I went back and forth as to whether I was having a girl or boy. People would ask, and I would say I wasn't sure. In the back of my mind, I really was thinking it was a girl. Her pregnancy was nearly identical to Ashlyn's. Dawson's pregnancy was by far the easiest and so much different from the girls'. It just seemed like that was too obvious though. When I was at the hospital during my labor, I told my sister that I really thought it was going to be a girl. Everyone else thought it was a boy except for Ashlyn and my mom. When Joey announced, "It's a girl." I could not believe it! I was over the moon!!! It was very hard to not find out before hand, but I absolutely would not change it for the world. It was such a great experience and that moment was well worth all the wait!
   She swallowed a little bit of fluid when she was born, so they had to suction her out a bit. She did get an "8" on both Apgar tests. She was just perfect. Ashlyn spent the day at the zoo with her good friend. She arrived at the hospital shortly after she was born. They did her first bath in our room. Ashlyn was just dying to come in and find out if she had a brother or sister. Finally, Joey brought her in. We had her in the cradle and wearing a white hat to not give any clues. She couldn't guess, so we finally told her she had a sister. The way her face lit up was absolutely priceless!!! She was so excited. She later told my mom, it was the best day of her life!
   We ended up staying at the hospital until Sunday. Our stay was great. I had the best nurses I have ever had. The baby and I received excellent care. Graceyn is a champion eater. The nurses were all impressed with how well she was eating. We spent our time at the hospital introducing her to her visitors and snuggling and cuddling her. I know how super fast this time will go by, so I'm trying to take in every last precious second!
   We were pretty set on a boys name. We had been discussing girl's names, but anytime I suggested anything, Joey and Ashlyn would immediately shoot it down. Finally, we decided we would worry about it at the hospital if it was indeed a girl. Well, we had a very hard time deciding on a name. I thought it would be easy once we saw her, but it wasn't. When I was pregnant with Ashlyn and Dawson, I always had a name picked out for a long time, so deciding at the hospital was very hard. EVERYONE kept asking what her name was. Ashlyn really wanted to name her Brinley. I liked that name, but was not crazy about it. I have liked the name Graceyn for years. I love the nickname Gracie. We finally got Ashlyn on board with Gracie. Dawson also said he liked it, so Graceyn it was. We chose Kathryn as her middle name because it is my sister's name.
    We are happy to be home and have spent the last few days adjusting as a family of five. Graceyn has immediately fit in so well to our family. It's like she has always been here. The kids are doing amazing with her. Ashlyn is the world's best big sister. She reads to her, loves to hold her, draws her pictures, and really helps me a lot. Dawson is still not to sure. He is really good with her. He likes to touch her hand. He isn't too interested in her right now, but I know he soon will be. I was a little worried about jealousy, but they are both so happy to have her here, they have adjusted very well.
   There are no words to describe how much I already love this little girl. She is such an incredible gift from God. I feel like the luckiest mother in the whole world to have 3 such amazing and wonderful blessings!!!!
     Here are some pictures from the hospital. Our photographer came to the hospital when she was one day old and got some excellent pictures.