Eliana Jean

Eliana: God has answered

And let me tell y’all, He sure has.

Way back in October 2018 when I found out I was pregnant again, the usual feelings of excitement, anticipation, fear, and anxiety all hit me at once. I had prayed for another chance, but after miscarrying in August, I wasn’t expecting to be pregnant again so soon. But as nervous and scared as I was, I had a really good feeling about that positive test. I had a gut feeling that this baby would come home with us.

And then at 5 weeks I started spotting. I knew that could be a normal early pregnancy symptom, I just hadn’t experienced it before in a healthy pregnancy. So to the dr I went for our first ultrasound! I knew I wouldn’t see much being so early on, but I was hoping I’d see something… and sure enough there was something! And it measured exactly what it should have been, so my hope began to grow a little. Week 7 brought our second ultrasound, and this time a tiny little baby with a beautiful heartbeat! Music to my ears. Week 9 brought another ultrasound and again, a perfect growing baby! And then a day shy of 10 weeks I started to bleed. I just knew that was it. Of course it was a Saturday night and there was next to nothing I could do. Sunday morning I messaged my dr and I can’t begin to tell y’all how thankful I am for him and the fact he was willing to see me on a Sunday morning to check on my tiny little baby. Thank the good lord, the ultrasound once again showed a perfect growing baby. I had what’s called a sub chorionic hemorrhage. Truly terrifying! But thankfully nothing too serious and it cleared up just fine a few weeks later.

The rest of my pregnancy was pretty textbook. Hunter and I decided pretty early on we would wait until the baby’s birthday to find out the sex. Ultrasound after ultrasound it became a little harder to remain patient, and I can’t tell you how many times I almost caved and asked them to tell me! But I really was determined. I had 2 main driving factors in keeping it a surprise.

Number 1: I didn’t want to experience gender disappointment.

Number 2: I knew if I found out we were expecting another girl, I would be even more anxious throughout the rest of my pregnancy.

So we waited! We had our names picked out and ready to go. We got the nursery put together in gender neutral tones with the thought of adding pops of color and more character once the baby arrived. And we counted down the days, weeks, and months, until our little bundle would hopefully be joining us!

On June 4, 2019 it was finally time!

Being my second scheduled c-section, I kind of knew what to expect, but also knew that plans could change. But y’all, everything went perfectly. We arrived at the hospital at 7:45 am like we were supposed to, and waited for about 10-15 minutes to be called back by the nurse to get ready for all of the pre-op stuff. SO much smoother than the morning of JD’s birth. My scheduled time was 9:00, and sure enough, right at 9, it was time to begin! Everything went great, and at 9:42 in the morning, Eliana Jean Newsome was born weighing in at 8lbs. 2.5 oz. and 20.5 inches long, the same length as her big sister ♥️

The moment Hunter told me it was a girl was truly indescribable. Of course I would have been overjoyed no matter what, but I just had the strongest feeling throughout my entire pregnancy that it was a girl, and it felt so good to be right! I feel so incredibly blessed to have been given the opportunity to raise both a son and a daughter and I just know Camryn had a part in choosing them for us. Both JD and Eliana have birthmarks on their backs in very similar locations. JD’s birthmark is in the shape of the letter C and Eliana’s is in the shape of a heart ♥️

I thank God for these sweet miracles every single day.