Baby Arrives

Introducing . . .




Anna Juliet
7lbs 9oz
20.5 in
born on December 26, 2009 at 5:27am

My first glance of Juliet. My water broke at around 1:15am and she was born in 4 hours. I was very fortunate this time around to make it to the hospital in time for some pain relief. I was very nervous about that and in fact was scheduled to be induced at 9:00 that very morning. I was worried about all the circumstances around getting to the hospital quickly with a lot of holiday traffic and making sure the kids were settled and cared for. All said and done, it worked out perfectly and was a decent labor and delivery compared to some of my other children. Juliet was very calm in the delivery room and hardly made a sound.

On the scale shortly after birth.

I must admit that she kind of looks like Ella here, but really she has a unique look of her own. I think she might look more like a Larsen than my other kids. She has really long narrow feet, a much smaller head than the other 4, and long legs with a shorter torso. Sounds an awful like my side.

A brief explanation of her name: During the summer months when I was in my first trimester, I was reading a book about the prophets' mothers. I noticed that in the early 19th century it was common to name a daughter after the mother, and she was often called a different nickname to distinguish. I just thought it was interesting and didn't think about it much until I found out we were having a girl. We liked the name Juliet and it is tradition in our family to give the girls a name that is from my side of the family. I couldn't find anything I wanted to go with Juliet and then I thought of that book I read and of my own name, Anna. Juliet Anna didn't sound right, but Anna Juliet did. This also led me to investigate the history of my own name. I knew I was named after my father's family and so I pulled out the journals and searched online. It was very fascinating to find this line of Anna's and read about them: Anna Maria, who joined the church and came to the US from Sweden. She named her daughter Anna Charlotte (who married John Anderson) and they named their daughter Anna Charlotte (dad's grandma Charlotte who married Rube Larsen). She in turn named her daughter Anna Bernice. I became excited about carrying on this tradition and naming my daughter Anna and passing on a rich family history.

Joseph came with the children after church on Sunday to see their new sister. Here is our first family photo. I wish I could smile, but I was having a bad lip day (I've had some really bizarre cycle with my lips where they crack, get blood blisters and then chap with pretty bad peeling.) The skin was so chapped that I literally couldn't smile without breaking the skin open. Joseph and feel like we have a pretty full nest at the moment, but we couldn't feel happier or more blessed during this holiday season.

The kids all love their new sister. Ella was too busy running around the room and getting in to everything to sit still and hold Juliet. She mostly pays attention when the baby cries.