She's here!

On October 10th, at 11:44 am, Petranella Jean Watkins was born to our lucky family. She weighed 7 lbs 13 oz, was 22 inches long, and head circumference was 35 cm. A few of you may be scratching your heads about the name we chose. Let us explain. Mal is 1/4 Lithuanian, and has an ancestor that was named Petranella. Mal felt particularly impressed with this name for nearly the entire pregnancy. As far as nicknames, we have quite a few. Petya, Bella Nella or just Nella. Jean, the middle name, was a name negotiated with Madie who originally had come up with a slough of names that were actually very good. A few of these included Elizabeth or Olivia. Like I said, very good names! Just didn't flow with the other two names, unfortunately. She also suggested Eenie Jeanie. We counter-offered with Jean, and the promise of being able to call her Eenie Jeanie, if she wished. Sold! So there we have it, a short explanation of the name.

The week leading up to her birth, we finished prepping everything we needed to for her arrival. Most of it was minor. And I've discovered that once you get to number three, you just don't worry about all those little details that you did with one and two. But there were a few basic things that needed to get done. For myself, on Thursday, I had multiple sentiments that she would be coming soon, and that I needed to make certain assignments at work so that my work team would be set for a week without me. I'm glad I listened to those, because she came within 12 hours of that. Mal woke up at about 3:00 am with contractions, and started pacing around the house, measuring the frequency of each one. She woke me up at about 4:00 am, and we got everything together and dropped the kids off at Trevor and Trish Casey.

Mallory did a great job during labor (as usual). This was probably the smoothest labor of all the kids. The only snag was Petranella's umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck, so right after her head was out Mal was told to 'not push' until they could safely remove the cord. My first impression of Petranella when she was born was her cry was so quiet compared to our other two kids! She didn't come out screaming at all really. She was immediately calm. She has maintained that same trait even now.

The night after Petranella was born, I took the kids camping in the backyard to keep my promise to them earlier that week. The kids absolutely love camping back there. Mal and Petranella came home on Sunday afternoon, and we were happy to have them return happy and healthy. 

She's got dark hair, and a dimple in her cheek (so far, only one cheek dimple) & chin.

Did we mention the MDI Hospital serves lobster rolls?

I love this photo, and I've gotten many compliments and comments on it. Madie absolutely loves holding Petranella, and Finn loves petting her. But hey, it works!

Happy at home.