Growing Sound Roots: It's a Girl!

Meet Sarah Lynn Seif.

Born April 18 @ Peninsula Hospital in Burlingame, CA.

8 lbs 13 oz. (The exact same as Micah!)

21 3/4 inches long!

Isn't Sarah Lynn the most beautiful name?! I absolutely looooove it! It's so perfect just like Sarah Lynn. The S in Sarah is in memory of her Gramma Susan who passed away when her mommy Jen was only 18 years young. Sarah was Susan's favorite name (aside from Jennifer of course). Lynn is for her Grandmother on her daddy's side (Alan's mothers middle name). She passed away when Alan was only about 8 years young. What an amazing way to honor the memory of such amazingly strong women who unfortunately passed way before their time. While I am so sad that Sarah Lynn will never get to snuggle those women or hear their stories and go on adventures with them, I am sure that she will feel their love and also be influenced by their amazing personalities and stories of perseverance among many other qualities. I miss Sarah's Gramma Susan everyday as she was like a second mama to me. I hope that Sarah will get her Gramma's patience, loyalty, stick-to-your-guns attitude, you-won't-know-if-you-don't-ask attitude, and her smile and laughter. I can't wait to tell baby Sarah silly stories of her Gramma too like the time Jen and I locked her out of our hotel room and she had to wait for us in the hallway in her night gown for a long time!

Jen and Alan are so strong to do this without their mothers. I know they don't have a choice, but they are still strong and will be amazing parents if they recognize all the powerful ways that Lynn (and Lou) and Susan helped shape them into the people they are today. And it helps that Alan has a wonderful family to spoil Sarah and dote on her on visits back and forth from Chicago. It also helps that thanks to Susan and Jen, Jen has many adopted family members locally that she can lean on whenever she needs. Baby Sarah does not have a lack of great aunties ready to come hang out at a moments notice!

I cannot even describe the amount of love I felt for this little one as soon as I heard she arrived in this world (…finally!). I cannot wait to see how Micah and Sarah interact when they are a bit older. I hope that they feel that special cousin bond. I will laugh if Sarah ends up annoying Micah on a vacation by singing out loud to her headphones. That would be Karma's way, huh Jen? ;-)

While the story of Sarah Lynn's birth is not really mine to tell, I will tell you that she took her sweet time and at the end of the 40 hour + labor, her mommy had a C Section! Poor thing!

Alan was an awesome daddy and took two weeks off to care for Jen and Sarah. At the end of the two weeks, I made sure that the girls would have someone to keep them company until the weekend when Daddy would be back. It just worked out that Micah made the trip with me, so he got to meet Sarah too and he got to spend a lot of quality time with his Nana and Papa. I got lots of snuggle time with Sarah and even got Jen and Sarah out for a walk and a few meals out. I joined them for a pediatrician appointment, which was a big celebration since Sarah gained a lot of weight back. The doctors and, certainly, her parents had been pretty worried. I met some of their doulas and visited with some of their friends who also came to meet or see baby Sarah. I tried to help clean and organize, but I mostly just snuggled Sarah as much as possible!

Finally, before Micah and I flew out of town, we were able to snap a photo that Jen and I always dreamed of: the two of us and our babies together. It's been an amazing friendship/"sisterhood" considering it was by complete chance that our mothers were assigned the same hospital room post birthing us, 31 years ago! The Vrbas family is looking forward to visiting again soon for Sarah's Hebrew Baby Naming.