The last thing we expected to be doing Thursday night....

First of all, I have to begin by saying thank you to everyone for the constant prayers and well wishes being sent our direction. I can honestly say that I have felt the outpouring of love and the blessings that are coming to our family just through all the many prayers being said in our behalf. For those who haven't yet heard, our little baby girl decided to make her way into the world WAY sooner than anyone ever expected and 13 weeks early to be exact. I was just coming into week 27 of pregnancy. I'm not even sure if that's technically the third trimester, or if I hadn't made it that far yet.

We aren't sure yet what caused me to go into labor, we probably will never know, but it came as quite a shock. Thursday night we came into the hospital and they did everything they could to try to stop the labor, but she was insistent on meeting us and wouldn't let anything get in her way. So I proudly introduce you to our baby girl:

Eden Noelle Justice
Born Friday, June 5th, 2:06 am
Weighing in at 2 lbs, 5 oz
14.5 Inches long

From the birth she sustained some pretty good bruising on her head and face so you'll see in the pictures that she looks a little beat up. Because she was so small she was a lot more susceptible to the bruising, but it's nothing too serious. It has already improved a lot and she continues to look better and better as time goes on.

While still in the labor and delivery room, once they had a chance to clean her up and get her a little stabilized, they let Brad take a couple pictures of her. I couldn't wait to see her and was a little anxious to know what was happening on the other side of the room.


Though it was extremely brief, maybe just a minute or less, I was so blessed to be able to have my new mommy moment and hold my precious baby. They had to continue to pump her lungs while I held her, but I can't explain how I felt that moment and how special that one minute will forever be in my life. Before she was born they had given me the warning that if there were any major complications that they may have to take her to the NICU immediately without me being able to see her, so I felt very blessed that they were able to stabilize her enough for me to be able to hold her first.


Here's the proud new daddy with his little baby girl.


Here's a shot of her taken right after she was settled in her new bed in the NICU. We were able to get a couple shots of her before they completely covered her up with the incubator to help regulate her body temperature. She has continued to stay completely covered since this picture was taken.


Eden's precious little foot in my hand.


So for a quick update, the timeline we are hearing is that she will most likely need to stay here in the NICU until her due date, which puts us here for about the next three months. If all goes well, we may go just a tad sooner, but we will take that one day at a time. Eden has been amazing since the moment she was born. All the doctors tell us that we are seeing the best possible results that we could expect to see. She has been on a ventilator and some oxygen since she was born, but as time passes they have been able to turn them down and she is preforming so great on her own. In fact, all has gone so well yesterday and today that they will be taking her off the ventilator tonight and putting her on a C-Pap which is an awesome sign! She has taken so well to weaning her from the ventilator throughout the day that they are ready to take the next step already. The doctor has also said that they have not seen any infections of any kind, and that the x-rays have all come back looking great.

Again, thanks for all the many prayers on her behalf, they really are working and we hope that you will continue to keep her in your prayers as we take the next steps. I will continue to post updates as we go along.