Our first born, Natalie Grace a.k.a. "Gracie"

Well shortly after Sam and I were married, our first little bundle of joy arrived... several weeks sooner than we expected! Gracie was due July 23, 2002- but Drs Roussis and Stephens and Fort Sanders Perinatal Center decided Gracie and I would be better off if she was delivered on June 15th. We had a rough few weeks before her birth due to Eclampsia. A week in the hospital and a seizure later, Dr. Stephens did an emergency C-section. Turns out that Gracie had been turning flips and had became tangled in her umbilical cord! No wonder she couldn't come down the birth canal. Was she trying to bungee jump? Oh well, the doctor ruined that fun. She weighed 5# 5.1oz and was 19in long. She had no trouble with her breathing, but she did have some trouble staying warm and with eating. She had a feeding tube for a few feedings, but after that she did ok and came home with me when I was discharged. When we left the hospital, Gracie weighed 4lbs and 15oz! What a tiny package. We had to swaddle her in blankets just to have enough to hold. It took me several weeks to recover from the c-section and the eclampsia. Sam was such a wonderful daddy right from the start. He was always eager to do whatever it took to take care of the both of us. As a matter of fact, we were like kids, arguing over who got to give her a bath! Our first home was a two-story 4-plex apartment. It had two bedrooms, so Gracie had her own cute little room. Her Grandma and Grandpa bought her some really cute, girly furniture for it. Shortly after Gracie was born, however, we moved out of the apartment and into a huge house on Anchor Drive that we rented for a short time. During our stay at that house, when Gracie was only 9 months old, we found out we were expecting again. Gracie would now have to share all of her spoils with a little sister. Poor baby girl! I was mortified to find out I was pregnant again after less than a year! Nursing school was getting tougher and tougher, and childcare more and more expensive. How were we to make it? It didn't take long though for Sam and I to warm up to the idea of having another baby. We got more and more excited, but it wasn't long before we had to move out of the huge house on Anchor Drive and into a much smaller two bedroom house in downtown Loudon. There we stayed, awaiting baby #2.