Welcome Caleigh Grace Bratton!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Even though the days before the birth of Caleigh were emotional and difficult, God blessed the day of her birth and the days since. We arrived at the hospital nervous and anxious. I had never met the doctor who would be performing the C-section and I had had nightmares and anxiety attacks throughout the night. I was put at ease when I met Dr. Hashad and the wonderful nurses at Mission Hospital. As my family began to arrive, the weight of my unfulfilled dreams for my daughter's birth began to lighten. At 6:00 pm the anesthesiologist came in and walked me into the operating room. They wasted no time prepping me, but I again began to get nervous when the spinal block didn't seem to be very affective. Marcus came in camera and video in hand prepared to try and capture as much on film for me as he could. Thank God he was there! As they began to pull her head out, I began to feel more and more pressure that was quickly becoming painful. As the assisting doctor began to push on my stomach to get the baby out, I was crying in pain and was told that they could give me something that would help, but may make me "a little drowsy". As I squeezed my husband's hand trying to bear with the pain, I asked for the medicine and was out cold within seconds. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see her enter the world or hear her first cry, or hear the words I was so nervous I would never hear "It's a Girl!"
I woke up in the recovery room extremely groggy and unable to see straight. I watched what I could of her first bath, closed my eyes to listen to her sweet cry, and finally heard a nurse refer to her as a pretty little angel. So, it was a girl, and to the best I could see, a perfect one! Marcus quickly asked them to move her warmer as close to my bed as possible so I could touch her. After about an hour, I was waking up a little more and now only seeing double as opposed to multiple. Marcus Jr. and Elijah were able to come in and meet Caleigh as well as my parents, In-laws, sisters, and my 2 best friends, Heather and Aliki. Recovery took 2 1/2 hours instead of one, so Caleigh and I didn't get to our room until close to 10:00 pm. All the cousins and JoJo were finally able to see our sweet new addition to the family.

The next few days in the hospital were so wonderful. So many visitors and I got to have 4 sleep overs!! The first night Marcus stayed with me then Heather on Friday night, my mom on Saturday, and then my sister Barb on Sunday night. I had so much fun with them as well as with my sweet, quiet baby girl. I got to get a lot of rest, eat a ton of yummy food, and was spoiled by the nurses.

On Monday, my dad and JoJo came to take us home. Barb was still there to help us load up and head to Grammy and PopPop's where we would stay until Wednesday. Again we had many visitors, including play dates for JoJo. Marcus and Elijah had already headed home on Sunday with their dad to finish of their last week of school. On Wednesday we loaded up the van and my dad drove the three of us home to Arizona. It was a long but fun drive. Caleigh slept the entire time only to wake up to nurse when we stopped for dinner in Blythe! Yeah - hopefully she will be a baby that continues to travel well. The only bummer was that we discovered poor JoJo had a fever and he spent the next two days with the fever, the runs, and some vomiting. Thank God Caleigh and I did not catch it.

We have been home almost a week now and she is just as good a baby as her brothers were. She sleeps a lot, wakes up to "play" a couple hours a day, and sleeps in 4 to 4 1/2 hour stretches every night. She barely cries at all - squeaks and peeps mostly. She is nursing very well and pooping more than her brother's ever did! I am healing slowly but surely. A big difference having this surgery at 21 with no kids and living in a little apartment than having it at 35 with 3 wild boys, and a big ol house. I'm getting there and I am trying to milk it as much as I can. Marcus stayed home Thursday to Monday night and got the house clean, painted Caleigh's room, did a bunch of grocery shopping, and impressed me with his cooking skills.

We still haven't watched the video of her birth yet, but I hear that my sweet husband did an amazing job catching it all for me and, as you can see from the above album, got great photos for me too!

We can't wait to come back to see everyone next week and make some more memories with our little princess.