Better late than never....

6 lbs 15 ounces , 19.5 inches long, Holly's eyes and nose (thank goodness!) and my fingers and toes :) + a cute dimple on her right cheek. I don't think we could have special ordered her any better.

I went into the office today (yes, this is Eric - the proud daddy) because I was scheduled for an employee benefit plan audit this week and the Partner told me quite clearly to go home!  So here I am, trying my second attempt at blogging while baby Aubree is sleeping.

What a fun ride, huh?  9 months seemed like it was never going to end for the two weeks prior to her birth, but once she got here, it all seemed like a blink of an eye.

Holly's Mom got here on Saturday the 12th of May and we were happy to see her!  We showed her around Anchorage a bit and and celebrated Mother's Day on Sunday. It's been great to have her here.  

We thought FOR SURE we were going to have Aubree early last week.  Holly had shown signs of progress in that direction at our doctor's appointment from the week before and she had made sure she hopped down every step each time she came down stairs in our town home, just for good measure.  We waited, and waited, and waited and my mind was anywhere but focused on work.  I kept expecting a call that her water had broke and we had to get to the hospital.  

(This was her due date)

We were bummed when we went to the doctor last Wednesday and he said that she was at the same spot she was the week before! We went on walks Holly hopped some more :) but despite our best efforts to persuade her to come, we ended up in Providence Hospital at 6:15 AM (we were supposed to be there at 6:00, but we were a little late - oops) on Friday morning for Holly's scheduled induction.  

(weird feeling walking into the hospital feeling great but knowing that we were about to have a baby)

We didn't get much sleep the night before so once we got all the paperwork out of the way and settled in our hospital room and the nurses got Holly set up with the Pitocin (which they also call "Pit" fyi, a little nurse slang) we both got a little shut eye. The morning went really slow.  Holly was having contractions, but they weren't really consistent and they weren't painful at all. Morning turned into afternoon (I went home and got some lunch) and finally things were starting to pick up.  I came back to the hospital with some games to play, but by that time Holly was feeling the contractions and was uncomfortable-the games went back into the bag and were never played :)

(we spent the morning watching ESPN....ok, Eric watched ESPN, i slept :) )

This is Holly now.  Eric saved this as a draft a month ago....I figured it was about time to finish it and finally post it.

At about 4:30ish i was REALLY uncomfortable and the contractions were getting strong.  I was dilated to a 5 and had been for a couple of hours.  I decided to get the epidural at about 5 (best decision ever).  Not only did i feel awesome, but it helped my body relax and everything went so quickly at this point.  I was dilated to a 7 shortly after and that went on to an 8, 9, and then at about 7:45/8:00 i was at a 10-Game time.  The nurse talked me into waiting another hour before pushing just to let the contractions do some of the work of getting her out before i started pushing.  A little after 9 i started pushing (a very exhausting process) and 45 minutes later our BEAUTIFUL baby girl was born.

Earlier in the day the nurses were talking to me about how small i looked and that i would most likely have a very small baby.  They talked about the extra tests that would have to be done if she were born less than 5 1/2 pounds etc... well, they weighed our baby girl and nobody in the room could believe she was as big as she was (even the doctor was very surprised).  6 pounds 15 ounces 19.5 inches long.  Perfect.
Holding our sweet little girl for the first time is something we will never forget.  We are so in love with our baby girl! We stayed over night at the hospital and left for home the next day.

At her 3 day appointment, Aubree had lost a few ounces and was down to 6 pounds 7 ounces.  Those ounces came right back up because she weighed in at 7 pounds 7 ounces at her 2 weeks appointment.  She is growing so fast! I seriously cannot believe that a month has already passed!
Life has never been better.  We are learning so much and are growing in love each day.

Some things about our little girl:
-She has the cutest dimple
-She has big beautiful blue eyes
-She has the cutest smile (still not an intentional smile, but it is adorable)
-She fake cries in her sleep (and it is soo funny)
-She puts her thumb in between her pointer and middle fingers
-She has long toes just like her dad (they curl over just like eric's)
-She sleeps 3-4 hours at a time at night (such a good baby)
-She has us both wrapped around her finger!

 I am sure i left a TON out, but that is the basic story.  We are loving life with our sweet "alaskan grown" baby girl!