A grand entrance

Well, on Monday, June 7, at 10:53 p.m., we had our baby and she made quite the entrance into the world.
My wife woke me up on Saturday morning and told me that she was starting to have some consistent contractions and from there on, we played a very long waiting game.
It wouldn’t be until 67 hours later that our baby, Florence Olive Mellini, was born in our home in Hamilton.
We did, of course, plan to have our baby at home. That was no accident.
We had been planning the home-birth from the very beginning and all went according to plan until the baby was actually born.
When she was born, Florence needed a little bit of help breathing on her own.
I won’t get too heavy on the details, but when I first laid my eyes on her, it was tough to see what seemed like a child who was not alive. I’ll never forget what I saw.
But, our midwife and her apprentices along with the INCREDIBLE first responders we have here in Hamilton were able to get her breathing on her own in a matter of minutes.
We called 911 and the first responders were at our home within three minutes at most. I can’t even begin to properly thank them for their part in saving my daughter’s life.
Once they got her breathing, we had to take her to the North Mississippi Medical Center in Hamilton and then transferred her to the NICU at NMMC in Tupelo, where we would spend the next five days.
This has been a rough couple of weeks for me and my incredible wife but it has resulted in a well-earned rest for her and the baby.
I know we have gotten very lucky and we continue to live a lucky life since she only seems to wake up once a night (so far).
I said it before, but I can’t thank our midwife Rebekah Myrick and our first responders Coby Wiginton, Jordan Carter, Angela Miller and Jay Howell enough for helping our daughter to start her breathing.
I’ll be honest, I didn’t really appreciate the first responders we have here until I needed them, but let me tell you, we have incredible first responders here.
My wife is well, the baby is incredible and I can’t wait to share all of the interesting adventures we live out with this great new addition to our family.