A new granddaughter is a wonderful Mother’s Day gift!

Eli was born at 5:51 p.m. and weighed in at a healthy 8 lbs 12 oz and she is lovely.

Nicole spent the day hanging out with Jon in his hospital room on the sixth floor, timing contractions in the comfort of the knowledge that the Birthing Center was just two floors down. Ben and Abi and I dropped by for an afternoon visit and by the time we left at around 3 Nic decided to call in her sister Pam who was her back up labour support given Jon’s limitations.

Once Pam arrived they headed down to get Nic assessed around 4:30. The nurses decided that the baby was still up pretty high and Nic still had a long way to go. They suggested that she do some walking and if nothing happened by 10 she could take a couple of Gravol and get a good nights sleep, so they headed back up to Jon’s room.

Shortly thereafter, Nic’s membranes ruptured and she knew the baby was coming quickly. She got into Jon wheelchair and Pam ran her down to the Birthing Center. By the time the nurse and Pam helped Nic onto the bed, Eli was already crowning . Fortunately Jon was able to commandeer another wheelchair and talked some random guy into running him down and arrived just in time to witness Eli’s birth. Nicole has this mothering thing down to a science.

Eli had some facial bruising as a result of her rather rapid descent past the pubic bone but that is healing nicely. Ben and Abi are delighted that Eli has finely come out to join them. Jon also was discharged home today and all are happy to have there little family together again.