Elizabeth Anne Jones is here!

Let's start back on December 14th. Here is a picture of Janell 39 weeks pregnant, 1 week before her due date.


Janell continued to work until Tuesday, December 15th, working 10 hours shifts her last couple of days. She was glad when work was over and she had some time to do the final preparations for Baby Lizzy. She did as much walking as she could on Wednesday and Thursday, but when we went into the Doctor on Thursday he finally convinced us our baby was not coming before Christmas.

Friday morning Janell decided to go to Provo Towne Centre to do some last minute shopping and some more walking. It just so happened that her brother Rob called and needed to hit some stores that were only at that mall, so they decided to meet up. Ten minutes after they met up at the mall they were walking from one store to another and Janell felt a gush of water. She stopped walking and just stared at Rob. Rob soon figured out what had happened and began just staring back at Janell. A lady walking nearby saw them just standing there and called out to see if everything was ok. After seeing their blank stares she realized what was going on and said, "Did your water just break? You need to get to the hospital." This finally broke them out of their trance and after exchanging a hug with the stranger they made their way (very wetly) out to her car. They both then drove to the hospital.

During her drive to the hospital Janell called Shawn. It was about 11am and Shawn wasn't expecting anything out of the ordinary in the call. She began by telling him about her morning and how she and Rob both needed to go to the same place so they met up at the mall. About 3 minutes into the call she finally got to the point and said, "And then my water broke." Shawn was not expecting this news, especially 3 minutes into the call. If you ever have news like this to share, it's best to start the call with it. "Shawn, I'm calling to tell you my water broke. Oh, and I'm at the mall with Rob." Shawn would have greatly preferred this order for the conversation because he would have been in his car driving out of the parking lot 3 minutes into the call instead of just finding out at that point.

Anyway, Janell checked into the hospital at 11:20am and Rob stayed with her until Shawn got there at 12:20pm. By just after 1 pm she wasn't having any contractions yet, so they started her on Pitocin to induce labor. Things progressed pretty well over the next few hours and by 5:30 pm she was ready for an epidural. Unfortunately, around 7 pm that epidural stopped helping but it wasn't until about 9 pm that the anesthesiologist discovered that it had slipped into a blood vessel and was no longer in the nerve. Soon after that they replaced it and things started progressing again. Shawn and Janell slept from about 10 - 11:30pm and by midnight Janell was reaching the final stages of labor.

Baby Elizabeth was born at 1:17 am. Shawn's first thoughts were that he had fathered an alien but her conehead went away quickly and once she was all cleaned up she was really cute. She weighed 8 lbs 8 oz and was 21 inches long, which surprised everyone. Here is the proud daddy holding Baby Lizzy just minutes after she was born:


Here is Baby Lizzy 1-2 hours later after getting a bath. Her hair looks very golden in this light, but it changes depending on the lighting from golden to very dark brown.

This picture was taken about 12 hours after birth. Luckily Shawn brought her Christmas dress to the hospital.


We left the hospital Sunday evening and were excited to get home and sleep in our own beds. Unfortunately, that night all 3 of us got very sick with a stomach bug. Lizzy was really hurting and we were so sick we were having a hard time taking care of her. At 5 am Janell called her mom and she immediately ran over to help us. She ended up staying with us more than 24 hours until late Tuesday morning. We don't know what we would have done without her. Tuesday morning we went to Lizzy's Pediatrician. He was pretty concerned about Lizzy's weight; she was down to 7 lbs 15 oz with her clothes on. Luckily, he and his nurses were able to give us some great advice to help Lizzy do better so we ended up getting some very good sleep that night.

And now what you've all been waiting for, a bunch of pictures of Baby Lizzy. Here is a picture of Lizzy enjoying a wonderful gift we received of a vibrating chair.


Wednesday we gave Lizzy her first bath at home. This is right before her bath with her Daddy.


During the bath. Lizzy didn't really care for it.


Lizzy seeking solace in her binky and holding on for dear life.


Lizzy after her bath with her Mommy.


Lizzy sleeping in her Christmas Pajama bag, with her hair frizzy right after the bath.


I'm not sure what to say about this picture. She wasn't really enjoying sitting up by herself.


Here is Lizzy with her Mommy on Christmas morning.


Baby Lizzy is doing her best Elvis impersonation in her little Santa outfit.


Lizzy in her cute little Christmas dress.


Our family on Christmas day.


In her candy cane outfit with her binky.


This is our favorite pajama set so far.


As many of you know, Shawn and Janell got the only thing they've ever wanted for Christmas. But, can you guess what Lizzy wanted for Christmas? A wipe warmer! She opened it as the one present she got to open on Christmas Eve and has loved it ever since. On Saturday, we went back to the Pediatrician for Lizzy's one week weigh-in. She was back up to 8lbs 8.5 oz, just over her birth weight and she is doing great now. We finally started to feel better by about Christmas day, though it definitely wasn't the same without spending it with our families. We tried to make a small-scale Christmas dinner but nothing turned out right so we really missed our mothers' cooking.