A Well Documented Life

Ashton and I cannot get enough of our little girl. We are so happy to have her around, even if she takes all our energy. Ashton loves to take pictures of her. It is really quite sweet how much he loves her. And it is really quite sweet how much he loves me. He is willing and ready to help at any time. I am so grateful for such a great man who is a good husband and father.

Just a few little things about our little girl:

She loves to have her hands up by her face. And the second your wrap her up she starts fighting to get her hands out. If she's really tired she gives up easily, but if she is still kind of awake she fights it hard core.

She makes the funniest little faces and we love how she has no control over her limbs. They often just randomly fly up above her head in what Ashton calls the "victory" pose (one hand up) or the "champion" pose (2 hands up). This is slightly funny because the other day Ashton got really excited about something that was good at work and he threw his hand up in victory himself.

We can't wait for her to really smile at us!

The Arrival of Our Sweet Hallie

Our little Hallie girl decided to come right on her due date! At least it wasn't late! I went to the Dr. the day before and she said I was 3.5 dilated and 80% effaced. She stripped my membranes which apparently seemed to help the process move right along. The next morning a little before 5am I woke up to some contractions but just laid in bed thinking that it wasn't real labor. But then they started to get stronger. I went into Hallie's room and tried to time everything, but it was just getting stronger and there was all kinds of pressure. After about an hour I went and woke Ashton up and told him I thought he was going to have a little baby that day. We got everything together and went to the hospital, arriving a little before 7am. I was just hoping that they wouldn't turn us away. They took us back and checked me out. I was a 6.5 and they let us stay (thank goodness). They asked if I wanted an epidural and I decided to get one. I didn't think that the pain was that intense. Of 1 to 10 it was probably around and 8, but it was the fact that I knew I still had a few more hours to go and to enjoy it without any pain seemed quite enticing. They gave me the epidural a little after 8am. Then Dr. Au came and checked me out around 9am and my water sac was hanging down really low and so they broke my water and by 10am i was ready to push. I pushed a few times without the Dr. there and then 2 or 3 times once she got there. Hallie wasn't coming so they gave me an episiotomy and on the next push there she was! It was one of the greatest experiences of my life!

She was born at 11:07am and weight 6lb 1oz, and was 19.5 inches long.

They placed her on my tummy and took and cleaned her up and then I got to cuddle with her. Oh it was so wonderful. (It was also nice to be able to lay on my back and not have all that extra weight on my guts!) Then she went down with Ashton to take a bath and they took me down to the recovery room.

Little did I know how great the hospital was. I tried to live it up as much as I could. Everything I needed was a call away, and when baby was fussy or I wanted to sleep I just sent her to the nursery; I must admit that she spent most of the time with us though. We loved and sill love just looking at her. Sometimes it's hard to believe that she is ours and is finally here, and other times it seems so real and perfect and natural.

She had a little problems with jaundice, but she turned out fine and didn't have to go under the lights or anything. She is a great sleeper...getting her to relax is the hard part, but once she's asleep she is ASLEEP. She has had man 6 hour sleeping nights so far. I hope that doesn't stop anytime soon.

We love you Hallie and are so excited to have you in our family!