Introducing our Baby Girl - Ellie Sylvia Podczaszy. Her name means Shining Light and her middle name was given to her in remembrance of my Grandma Sylvia Brown - an amazing mom and grandmother. Ellie's Birthday: January 22, 2012. She was born at 2:44PM at 6 pounds, 3 oz and 19 inches long. After only 5 hours of labor at the hospital, Ellie made her grand entrance into the world - and Mama had no epidural :) It was the most amazing experience of my entire life! Jeremiah held my hand the entire time, and with the support of my mom, my dearest friend Rebekah, my midwife and my doula, I don't think I could have had a better labor experience! Shortly after Ellie's birth, our pediatrician heard an irregular heart beat. Thankfully, he didn't just let this go, but instead he ordered some tests to be done. We were told to stay an extra day at the hospital so that the tests could fully be examined by a cardiologist that he recommended, and by the end of that 2nd day, we were told that Ellie needed to be flown to Stanford Hospital to get a pacemaker that would regulate her heartbeat. This is a surgical process, and Jeremiah and I were a bit terrified and nervous. I'm not sure how we would have gotten through that Tuesday evening or the following week and a half if it weren't for God's peace that transcends all understanding - and of course without the amazing prayers of all of our friends, relatives, friends of friends, etc... God has truly proved His awesome faithfulness - and as we ready ourselves to FINALLY go home from the hospital with Ellie tomorrow morning - February 4th - we can firmly and sincerely proclaim: How Great Is Our God! Ellie is healthy, whole - and she recovered from her surgery extremely quickly. She is beautiful, strong, and PERFECT!
In the coming days/weeks, I will be uploading our pictures onto this blog. We have so many - and it will be awesome to share them with our readers - and we look forward to sharing with Ellie about the amazing people at Kaweah Delta Hospital and Stanford Hospital who helped save her life. - and who helped Mommy and Daddy fully realize the awesome power of our amazing God.
The pictures on this blog are all from her birthday. Unfortunately, many of our pictures are gone because our camera got stolen, but nothing can erase the beautiful memories that Ellie has brought us. The pictures you see are all from our cell phones.
Her eyes are wet from the medicine they put into them right after birth.
Look at all of her beautiful hair!
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