Today was “supposed” to be the day we met Isabella Grace.  The plan was to drop Catherine at Ben’s sister’s house and head over to the hospital to check in at 11am.  Then the c-section was scheduled for 1pm today.  By this time, we were going to have Isa’s nursery ready, all of my work would have been finished over a week ago, and I would have stocked up on things for the house before I wouldn’t have been able to drive for a couple of weeks.

It’s been two weeks and a day, but I’m STILL in shock that Isabella came so early.  I’ll share more of her full birth story later but the day she came, I was exactly 37 weeks, so there was no reason for the doctor to stop contractions or to try and keep Isa where she was.  So instead of 1pm on February 21, she was born at 6:36am on February 6!  But her sweet spirit and her constant smiles (mostly in her sleep!) have brought us so much joy!  And as a friend pointed out, we’ve had two bonus weeks with her that we weren’t expecting!

An amazing thank you goes out to our talented friends who stepped in two weeks before any of us thought they’d need to for these photos!

Amy Keely came up to the hospital at 6am to capture her birth:

And then Kendra came to the hospital the next day for some Fresh48 photos.  It was the perfect chance to have photos (other than the birth!) of just us with Isabella.  She’s going to have plenty of photos with her sister so this was just about her :-)
To see more of this Fresh48 session, head over to Kendra’s blog!

And finally, Courtney Malone came two weeks early to take Isa’s newborn photos at home.  Lots of people have been asking how Catherine is doing with her little sister and she’s always asking or calling for the “bébé”!  It’s so sweet.  This morning she even stuck her hands out to Isa (while she was dozing in the kitchen) to dance with her!  We’re just hoping she still wants to do that a year from now :-)
 Once we start edging out of “survival mode” over here, I’ll post Isabella’s full birth story.  Until then, I’m SO THANKFUL for my amazing clients and potential clients who have been so understanding over these past couple of weeks since Isa surprised us by coming early.  I truly love having my dream job, but it’s even more worth it since I have dream clients too!