a little catch up...

Phew! It has been almost two weeks since we welcomed Nora into our family and what a whirlwind! It is already hard to remember life before her.

For those who care about birth details and such, I'll give a little rundown of the events... I'm happy to say that I did kind of go into labor on my own this time. Contractions woke me up at about 12:45am December 6 and by about 4:30am they were strong enough and regular enough to make us drive to the hospital. Of course by the time we got there and got hooked up to the monitor they had slowed down and so the decision was made to just proceed as an induction (we already had one scheduled for a few days later... ). All was going well until our nurse realized that Nora had her hand stuck above her head making a c-section the best option for a safe delivery. In the end it was a blessing that we went that route because they soon discovered that she also had the cord around her neck 4 times and we may have ended up with an emergency c-section anyways.

Nora was born at 11:29am on December 6 and weighed 7lb 9oz and was 21 3/4 inches long... lighter and longer than her brother was. She has been a sweet little girl from day one and we thank God every day for her. Matthias is doing pretty well adjusting to "baby" in the house and every once in a while he asks to hold her or looks around for her if she is sleeping in her bassinet.

Nora's name and birthday hold a lot of significance. Eleanor is my 96-year-old grandmother's name (and my middle name). Mei has several meanings in Chinese including little sister (Mei mei), beautiful (Mei li), and plum blossom (mei hua). Coincidentally my grandmother's mother was called Mae. Nora's St. Nicholas Day birthday was also my maternal grandfather (Eleanor's husband) birthday. He would have been 104 years old!. Ironically, Matthias shares a birthday with Elden's maternal grandfather.

And so, without further ado... some pictures of our little lady and our growing family!

Our St. Nicholas Day baby... complete with Christmas bow!

heading home!

She often smiles in her sleep

Having a little Christmas fun with mom and dad once Nora falls asleep :) 

Grandma Hinz made Matthias a quilt with diggers on it and boy does he love it! It was just the thing to remind him that he is still one special boy even though there is a new addition in the family.