Welcome Izzy

If you’ve ever wanted to see waaaay too many pictures of Simon and Izzy meeting for the first time then hold on to your hat because your dreams are about to come true. Here are some (okay, many) pictures of Izzy’s arrival from a few seconds old til the moment we left the hospital.

Much to my surprise I went into labour on my own 11 days before Izzy’s due date. (This was very surprising because you may recall that Simon was a full 14 days overdue!). That meant our scheduled c-section got moved up to an urgent section, as the doctor called it. It’s not an emergency he said, but it’s definitely a priority. We arrived at the hospital around 10:30am and Izzy debuted at 1:53pm. The doctor was right, they weren’t fooling around!

Breathing through a contraction and probably thinking that a section doesn’t seem like that bad an idea right about now.

It’s all good!

Be right back. Having a baby. (I didn’t even know Dave took this picture!)

She’s here! A healthy, beautiful, baby girl. (Complete with a snazzy hat!).

Checking her out as best I could from the sidelines.

First look.

First kiss.

A little tear because gosh darn it Izzy, we did it!

First snuggles in the recovery room.

There she is! All 7 pounds, 4.3 ounces and 21 inches of her!

Perfection. ♥

Meeting Nana and Papa for the first time. This picture kills me. So many emotions.

Here we go. Simon and Izzy meeting for the first time. Brace yourself for the extreme level of sweetness you’re about to witness. It was truly one of the most special moments of my life if not THE most special moment.

He did take 2 minutes to snuggle his Mama and check out my hospital bracelets which made me very happy as well.

Yup, she has all ten toes.

Going in for a kiss. That pucker kills me.

Izzy eyes. Izzy nose. Izzy ear. Almost 4 weeks later we’re still inventorying her body parts daily!

Cue tears and heart explosions all over the place. I’m pretty sure it was love at first sight for Simon. Such a proud big brother.

Izzy on the other hand, is unsure.

Meeting Granny and Grampy for the first time.

Proud Daddy looking on.

Nope, sitting still and keeping his feet on the floor is simply not an option. Even during life’s big moments!

Opening his big brother present from Aunt Paula.

Opening Izzy’s absolutely gorgeous present from Aunt Paula!

Simon deciding whether or not he wants to go back to being a baby. Turns out he’s a little cramped in Izzy’s bed.

A visit from these two beautiful souls, Shelly and Dana.

Izzy’s future is so bright Simon’s gotta wear shades!

She spent 8 hours working on her tan. I like to think she was learning the ropes for a trip to Thailand. Or at the very least, Youghall Beach in August!

So itty bitty in Papa’s arms. There’s a 78 year age difference but I don’t think that will impact their ability to be best friends.

Izzy with her Buddha of Compassion.

Attempting the first-ever brother-sister portrait. At least we know there’s only one place to go from here – up!

A quiet moment waiting to find out when we would get to go home. We were only in the hospital four days but it felt like forever… and a blink.

Improvising a vase for flowers. Parenting teaches you to be creative in your problem solving, if nothing else! (This was all Dave, I have to give him credit. The rubber glove still makes me laugh and laugh).

We took the same picture of Simon in the same outfit in the same pose (with the same unimpressed look) when we were busted out of the IWK. One of these days I’ll have to do a side by side. I remember that Simon barely squeezed into this little suit and Izzy is just growing into it now, at almost a month old! When we were getting ready to leave the hospital with Simon we realized that we had forgotten to pack a blanket to wrap him up in for the drive home. Blanket was the number one thing on my hospital packing list this time around!

It was 8pm when we were finally cleared to go home. I said oh no, it’s too dark to take a picture of us leaving! But Dave said no way, let me take one of her in the back seat. It was so cold and she was so bundled up. I’ll never forget what he said when he climbed in the front seat beside me and handed me the camera. “She looks so muffin-y back there.” And with a smile on our faces and laughter in our hearts, we headed home.