Renesmee Cullen

Renesmee (ruh-nez-may) Carlie Cullen is the fictional half vampire, half human daughter of Edward Cullen and Isabella Cullen, in the fictional "Twilight" series. She is first seen when she is born in the novel Breaking Dawn.

Name Origin
Renésmee's name derives from the amalgamation of the names of Bella's biological mother, Renée, and her mother-in-law, Esme. Her middle name, Carlie said like Kar-lee, is a combination of the names Carlisle, Bella's father-in-law, and Charlie, Bella's biological father. Jacob Black gives her the nickname "Nessie" because he considers her full name too much of a mouthful; by the end of the book, all of the characters have adopted this shortened version.

Bella's Pregnancy
After Edward and Bella are married, they travel to Isle Esme on their honeymoon where Edward fulfills his promise to Bella of finally making love to her. Bella begins to notice certain emotional swings, peculiar eating habits and vomiting spells which confuse her. After realizing that her period was late, and finding a lump in her belly, she realizes she is pregnant with Edward's child. Edward takes her home to Carlisle so he can remove the fetus, but Bella does not want to lose the baby. Enlisting Rosalie Hale's help, Bella refuses to have an abortion, determined to carry the child to full term. As the baby continues to grow at an alarmingly rapid rate, Bella's health worsens. She develops an unhealthy pallor; her stomach is bruised in multiple places from the baby's movement as it has inherited a vampire's inhuman strength; her ribs, and then her pelvis, are broken. Her body has been rejecting human food, and only when Jacob Black bitterly thinks about the "creature" wanting blood is Edward, who has the ability to read thoughts, able to find the solution. The Cullens allow Bella to sample some donated human blood from Carlisle's work at the hospital. To Bella's surprise, the blood smells and tastes appealing, and revives her to an extent. Beside's the growing baby's strength and appetite, evidence of its vampire heritage is apparent in the fact that the amniotic sack is so thick and hard that ultrasounds are useless. As Bella's pregnancy nears its completion, the child wins even Edward - who had been desperate to perform an abortion for Bella's own safety - over when he begins to hear its thoughts, finding out that the baby loves Bella and the sounds of its parents' voices. Bella insists the baby is a boy and calls it EJ (Edward Jacob), though she admits that she has decided on the name Renésmee for a girl. The pregnancy continues its rapid progresssion, and Bella goes into violent labor even sooner than expected when the placenta is unexpectedly detached. Rosalie begins to perform an emergency C-section on Bella, but is overcome by her instincts toward human blood and is forced to leave, so Edward continues with the C-section as Bella loses consciousness. Edward uses his vampire teeth to bite through the amniotic sac, and the child breaks free, with Bella very near death. Edward injects vampire venom directy into Bella's heart and bites her in several places, maximizing her odds of being healed by the process of turning into a vampire and preventing her death. Jacob and Edward perform CPR to try to keep Bella's heart beating. It is revealed that, despite Bella's certainty that the child would be a boy, it is a girl: Renésmee.

After the Birth
Jacob Black, previously determined to destroy the monster which he believed to have killed Bella, imprints on Renésmee as soon as he sees her. Renésmee becomes key to a truce between the werewolves and the vampires; other werewolves would not hurt her because of pack traditions which prevents harm towards imprinted ones. She is protective of him, thinking of him as her Jacob. When he is present in her memories. It is stated that she loves her Mother at the same level as Jacob, even before officially meeting Bella.

Renésmee grows at an exceptional pace, her first word being "Momma" and said only seven days after birth. It is stated at the end of the book that she will probably reach complete physical maturity after about seven years, at which point she will stop aging and live forever. She learns faster than she grows and acquires the ability to speak rapidly, but prefers using her gift to communicate. She inherited two gifts; she can show thoughts through touch (the opposite of her father's gift) and can break through any shield (the opposite of her mother's). Renésmee is also called Nessie.

The Volturi
While Bella, Jacob, and Renésmee are in the woods hunting together, they are spotted by Irina, a member of another coven who is mad at the Cullens for not avenging her mate's death. Irina saw Renésmee jump, and took her to be one of the immortal children, or in other words, a child that was bitten. Because of their inability to control themselves, "Immortal Children" are not allowed to exist, and Irina [whose mother had been killed for making an immortal child] turns her in to the Volturi. Irina is not aware, however, that Renésmee is not an immortal child, she is half human, half vampire, growing and learning. The Volturi make the decision to come to Forks, and destroy the immortal child. Alice sees this in a vision and decides there is no hope. She tells the Cullens they need to prepare a witness, and leaves a clue for Bella to figure out how to get Renésmee and Jacob alibis, and then flees. When the Volturi show up, the Cullens have gathered witnesses from all over the world, who have seen what the child is. Though at first, the Volturi are ready to kill, they soon see through all the people willing to protect the child that she is special and should not be harmed. The deal to let her live is set when Alice shows up near the end of the trial with another child like Renésmee, one the Volturi have never known of. That child manages to tell the Volturi how he ages and matures, how old he is, and about his diet. They no longer see Renésmee to be a threat, and leave.

Physical Appearance
Renésmee is described as having the facial features of her father, Edward, as well as his reddish-brown hair color. However, she inherited curly hair from her grandfather, Charlie Swan. Her eyes are described as chocolate brown, just like her mother, Isabella Cullen's were while she was still human. She has pale, though non-vampiric, skin which has a blush to it because her heart pumps blood. Her skin is assumed to be as tough as a vampire's, but her temperature seems to be unusually warm, only a few degrees below that of a werewolf. Similarily to her family's skin, Renésmee's skin glows in the sunshine rather than sparkling like diamonds.

Diet
Renésmee is able to survive on both blood and human food, though she prefers blood. She seems to have absolutely no problem resisting the urge to hunt humans, but doesn't much like the taste of animal blood. Jacob challenges her to competitions to see who can get the bigger prey, hoping that she will be more willing to stomach the taste of the animal blood. It is assumed that she will follow her family's "Vegetarian" life style for vampires.

Special Traits
Renésmee, often called “Nessie”, for short, is what is known as a vampire hybrid. She is very much alive, complete with a beating heart (given, a speeding heart) and veins filled with her own blood. Just like a human, she cannot fully function without it.Unlike the rest of her vampire family, she is also able to sleep. However, she is also immortal. She will continue to grow until the age of seven although she will appear to be about twenty, at which point she will cease aging. The Cullens know this only because of their encounter with another hybrid, who told tales of him and his sisters. She is not venomous, as that appears to be a male trait among hybrids. Nessie is also gifted, like some vampires. If she wishes, she may touch someone’s face and show them one of her memories. Ironically, this is the reverse of her father’s power who can read any thought that happens to pass someone's mind. This came in handy before she could speak, as she could use it to communicate. She is able to penetrate Bella’s protective shield, and Edward theorizes that this is because she is forcing herself upon Bella, instead of shielding herself; the exact opposite of her mother’s gift, the ability to shield anyone from a mind-related attack.