Gracelyn Elizabeth Hansen

Well, it's true we had a girl and she is so darn cute! She is so different from Cole. We are just realizing how chill Cole really is! Gracie just knows what she wants and when she wants it. We are looking at the adjustments of having a new personality and having two kids as a big adventure- and it certainly has been so far! Despite the stresses, I have had multiple moments the past week of feeling so completely happy. What is better than family?

This last week my mom was here helping out. She was amazing. Our home is clean and even a little more decorated, and our kitchen is full of food (including 12 or so frozen dinners!). She is awesome. She left this morning and the day has gone well. Kellen will be back in school on Monday so I will be here with the two for the first time. Any advice for me?? I need it!
Oh! I need to write about Gracelyn too. Gracie was born Monday May 25, 2009 at 9:12pm. She weighed 8lbs. 2oz. and was 21.5 in. long. I'm not sure where she was inside me! I never got very big, so she fit pretty well somehow.

Labor story:
Monday morning we finished our weekend of babysitting four kids for a family in the ward. I was quite uncomfortable and feeling contractions every now and then. At noon contractions started coming a little more consistently-but still anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes apart. My mom showed up at 3pm. My contractions never got really consistent before getting to the hospital, but by 5:30pm I couldn't walk or talk through most of the contractions so we headed to the hospital at 6pm. When we got there our nurse was telling us about a girl that had just come in that was 8cm and 100% effaced. We all said that was nuts. Then she checked me.....yep, I was 7cm and 100%!! I had decided with this one that I wasn't going to do an epidural, and I thought to myself before going to the hospital that if I was at least 4cm that I could still do this naturally. Me and Kellen gave each other high fives! Wahoo! I labored until 9pm when I started to feel an urge to push. My water still hadn't broken so the doctor came in, broke it, and had me push. Five pushes later she was out! Pushing was the hardest part for me because it was the only time I really didn't think I could do it. It was a little scary, but she came out o.k.

It was a beautiful, peaceful experience for both me and Kellen. I'm so proud of women for going through perhaps the hardest, scariest and yet most miraculous experiences they will ever go through. Whether a woman gets drugs or not, it is a miraculous thing that they are a big part of. I'm proud of that. And, as well as that I have to just say how thankful I am for Kellen. He played a big part in this as well for me. He was there, he listened, he was concerned, and I did so much better because of it. His prayers and presence were every bit as important as anything I did. I love him so much for that.

O.k., so here are a few pictures. Enjoy!