Introducing Miss Serenity Piper Gower!!

Our precious little angel entered this world February 25th at 12:10pm weighing 8lbs 8oz and 20 inches long after 8 hours of labor. She was barely born in the hospital :) 
Our sweet Mina saw Serenity from a distance the day she was born but didn't get to meet her till a couple days later.  She had 102 fever, bad cough and runny nose so she got to spend a couple days with Oma and Papa.  It was really hard for Jim and I to not have her with us and that she didn't get to meet Serenity right away but we didn't want to risk her getting sick.... plus we knew she was in very good hands and they definitely spoiled her.  She spent most her sick days sleeping in her Papas arms and being snuggled.


Oma (my mom) made this special outfit for her as her going home from the hospital outfit and to have as a keepsake to pass down to her kids.  My mom kept my outfit from when I was a baby which Myla wore home from the hospital and will have to pass down to her children so my mother made this special outfit so Serenity would have something as well.

Leaving the hospital!
 For those interested in hearing my birth story:

I woke up with contractions around 4:00am and laid in bed about 30 minutes trying to go back to sleep and couldn't. I got up took a shower and realized the contractions keep coming and I was in labor. I woke Jim up around 6:30 to let him know and then I just worked on packing our bags and cleaning. After Jim got around he left the house around 8 to go get the videocamera from the office. (Which I found a bit humorous cause he left right before the girls woke up.) So that meant I got both of them up and ready for the day occasionally having to stop when I'd have a really painful contraction. My mom came by around 10 to pick up the girls and I just continued doing things around the house and pausing & squeezing pressure points when I'd hurt really bad. My contractions started out lasting about 1 minute long and 2-3 minutes apart. Then the part that threw me off was that my contractions were getting much more painful but further apart. Finally after tears during a few contractions I told Jim I thought we should go ahead and head for the hospital and literally a minute after saying that I was having back to back contractions and in a lot of pain.
So I wanted to labor at home as long as possible and thought it would be ideal to arrive at the hospital about an hour or 2 before she was actually born. Well apparently my timing wasn't very accurate in when I thought she would arrive because all of a sudden I was in transition labor and having back to back painful contractions as we tried to hurry to the car to drive about 20 minutes to the hospital where my midwife was to deliver. I literally prayed the entire car ride as I had constant contractions and asked the Lord to please help us make it to the hospital because I didn't want to deliver in the car. We pulled up at valet and the man asks "Should I get a wheelchair." Jim told him yes which thankfully I didn't try to walk up cause she would have been born in the hallway then :) Once he wheeled me up to the labor and delivery floor in the triage room to get checked in the nurse tried to get me up out of the wheelchair into the bed. I sat there through another painful contraction and then tried to stand up to get in the bed and started having another painful contraction. I told Jim I felt like I needed to go to the bathroom and he was rushing around like a crazy person trying to quickly line the toilet with a layer of toilet paper & get back over to help me LOL. As I stood leaning over the bed I felt a big gush... my water breaking and the baby was coming. The nurse had left the room a minute and I told Jim go get somebody the baby is coming and I just kept thinking I'm going to have to catch this baby myself. So in comes running 2 nurses trying to get me to get up on the bed so I didn't have her on the floor. Within a minute or two after that in comes my midwife and Serenity is born. My doula unfortunately missed the delivery by a minute. She had a really short umbilical cord so while we waited for the cord to stop pulsating to clamp it she rested on my belly :) She nursed for about 4 hours after that. It was such a crazy hectic time and not quite how I'd imagined it but everything worked out perfectly and what a wonderful experience it was.
We are so thankful for our newest little blessing!
We stayed in the hospital 24 hours so that we could get the hearing test and pku done as well as social security paperwork and birth certificate.  Myla came up to the hospital to help us take her home and she managed to lock herself in the bathroom in our room right as we were trying to leave.  It took maintenance about 25 minutes to get her out of the bathroom.  Poor baby was a bit tramatized and had her pants around her ankles when they finally got the door open.  Guess she was to scared to pull her pants up once she realized she was locked in.

Once we left the hospital we took Serenity by my grandmas house.  It was really important to me and to her because her health is not very good as I've posted previously.  She has stage 4 lung cancer which is rapidly spreading through her body and she continues to decline.  Please lift her up in your prayers as well as my family!

Serenity with her great grandma!!