At the hospital

We named our baby Elizabeth Tam Nielson, planning on using Betty as the nickname for Elizabeth.  Elizabeth is my middle name, and Betty and Tam are my grandma's names.  She was born with some very distinctive birthmarks on her face, just like her big sister Cora.  Like Cora's, these are expected to fade after a year or so.  The nurse informed us that these types of birthmarks are known as angel kisses, and indeed, the one on her forehead looks like a lipstick mark.  I love having this little reminder of where she comes from and treasure the thought of one of our many family members in heaven giving her a parting kiss before sending her down to us.  

Betty and I got a couple of days at the hospital to recuperate before coming home.  It was a little scary, they kept up an extra day because they saw some bad results on a blood test they did on Betty, but she looked perfectly healthy so they redid the test with a fresh blood draw and luckily everything came back negative the second time.  The first one must have gotten contaminated.  Meanwhile Betty and I got some good rest and got ready to come home and join the rest of the family.  I also got to take some pics of her in the nice natural light at the hospital and tried on some of the little baby clothes that I had sewn for her before she was born, like the floral pants, gown and top in these pics.  It was nice to have the time with Betty but those nights alone were a little hard to get through - worrying about the kids and Ryan at home, Mom having to do so much to take care of everyone, and feeling stuck far away from everyone.  I think it was mostly hormones and exhaustion making me a little off though and it helped so much knowing that Mom was there helping and also our ward family was helping a ton.  I even had a visitor one night at the hospital from a sister in the stake Relief Society presidency who brought flowers and stopped by just as I was starting to feel a little sad and cheered me up.  

Finally we were cleared to come home!  My mom, Cora and Elijah came to the hospital to bring us home on Wednesday March 12th.