Baby Hill

Chris and I went to Baton Rouge for Christmas and stayed for about a week. We were planning to leave a little earlier, but as soon as we made the decision to leave-- Laura went into labor!

It started on Friday night. Laura came to me with tears in her eyes, thinking that something was wrong with her baby. She told me that she was feeling a lot of pain and it was different than any other pain she'd been feeling throughout the pregnancy. A quick lesson with Dr. Google and I told Laura that I was pretty sure she was having contractions!

Sure enough, everything was pointing to the fact that Justin and Laura were going to be parents before the New Year! At about 1:30am on January 31st, they headed over to the hospital.

We got the call on the compound around 3:30am that we should head up there. So Chris and I rallied the troops. Once we visited with Laura, we headed out to the waiting room. I traded a few text messages with Laura who let me know that Justin was asleep. This made me giggle because I looked up from the text to see this:

Each one of the Hills in the hospital were asleep! Meanwhile the inlaws/cousin were wide awake:

I'm telling you, those Hills can sleep anywhere!

After some more waiting, we decided it was safe to go downstairs for breakfast. Where Chris was in a "bacon mustache" kind of mood:

After a few hours of "no new news" we were shocked to get the word: mama and baby are doing great! Within minutes of celebrating that news, we were told we could go see our new nephew or niece!

We were split on the guess of boy or girl. But Jojo and Jeremy heard a song on the way to the hospital that morning: Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. Jojo was sure that was prophetic since we knew that if they were having a girl, she would be named Lucy. So... for the big announcement:

Everyone was so excited! Jojo and Jeremy had brought a boy outfit and a girl outfit:

How fun that we have another little girl to spoil with dresses and bows!

After the announcement we all took turns meeting the newest Hill Baby:

(Chris congratulates his baby brother.)

(Aunt Jojo gives some advice to niece and new-mom Laura.)

(The cousins meet.)

(PD tells Lucy she'd better get ready for life on the compound!)

After a quick champagne toast:

And a family photo:

We left the new family of three to spend some time bonding, resting and enjoying each other.

But before I end this post, let's get some more shots of my adorable new niece!

She's a tiny baby (6lbs, 2 oz) but she has long feet and hands!

I have more photos of when we came back that afternoon (after naps for all!) and I'll share those next week.

Lucy Karen Hill made her arrival just in time to celebrate the end of 2011! We are all excited for the changes, celebrations and excitement that 2012 holds for the Hill family!