two new (girl) cousins

When we visited Nathan and Ana for vacation in August we found out they were expecting again (Theo was only about nine months old). Shortly after we found out Shari and Jesse were also expecting. They were due just weeks apart in April of 2016. 

Shari's turn came first. Her water broke in the middle of the night on Friday, April 8. Grace and Sarah had been cesarean sections and she deeply desired a natural birth. She labored for hours, finally dilated to ten, and then pushed for nearly five hours before the baby got stuck. Little Rebekah Joy was born via cesarean Saturday, April 9th. This was the first picture I received. Beautiful. Poor Shari was beyond worn out.

You can see Sarah's ear sort of sticking up. Her ear had got caught on Shari's pubic bone because her head was sideways in the birth canal. No wonder she got stuck!

Those cheeks! 

She had a perfectly round little doll face.

I was able to go meet her that night. Eeee! 

I was quite psyched. 

I brought Shari and the girls dinner several nights later and got a chance to hold her again. 

Then it was Ana's turn. She was wishing she could go early like she did with Theo. The poor thing was having a very difficult time sleeping - she wanted that baby out! However, her due date came and went. 

Nearly a week later she realized that she was more likely due at that time according to her ovulation charting. Sure enough, a day later she went into labor at 11:30pm on Thursday, April 28th. She labored at home through the night and when she couldn't handle it anymore they headed to the hospital. It's a good thing they left when they did because Ana had the urge to push in the car! Elin Mae was born shortly after their arrival to the hospital in Willmar, 20 minutes from home.

Awww, my proud brother.

Elin's name is Norwegian (my dad's side) and pronounced E-lynn. They had initially heard the name mentioned by my Grampa at Thanksgiving. He said it was my Gramma's grandmother's name. It also happened to be a variant of "Helen" which is my mom's first name (thought she goes by her middle name since her mom's name was also Helen). Both mean light or beautiful woman (Helen of Troy).

She's such a perfect little doll too! I think she totally looks like Ana already - her eyes.

Later that day we were able to Facetime with Nathan and Ana. That's one good thing about a smart phone. We won't be able to meet Elin for a couple months so seeing her in real time was a treat. 

She was getting rather bored of us... 

...and she's out. We're thankful our new cousins are here safe and sound, but Noah was rather disappointed they weren't boys. Not Evie though. Girl cousins are the closest thing she's ever going to get to a sister.