Such a blessing

It's been 2 1/2 weeks and such a joy to have Avery home with us!  We were lucky to have family and friends visit, and our church and school friends have been so sweet to bring us meals and their congratulations.  It's actually going to be quite sad to start cooking again and miss out on everyone's delicious recipes!  :)

 

 Last Sunday we were able to go to church and give Avery a Baby's Blessing - an opportunity to officially name her and give her a blessing at the start of her life.  We were so happy that both Richard's and my parents could attend and be included in Avery's blessing.  It was amazing to think how our "family" has grown over the past 3 years - our immediate family, our dear medical school friends, our church family ... it was an amazing day to feel the love of all our extended family and to share with them our new addition.

The words of the blessing were beautiful and it made me so grateful to be married to such a wonderful man and to be the mother of this beautiful child.  And today I get to celebrate my first Mothers Day - what a blessing!

Less than 72 hours old

My two loves

There's been a lot of this lately

Ready to be daddy's assistant

It was hard to get a grandparent to actually look at the camera if Avery was nearby

Blessing day - The Barbers

Avery was a trooper - it was HOT

Blessing day - The Talbots

The Robisons, Talbots, & Leamans

I love this girl!

Asleep in her crib...she loves sleeping on her side!!

Somebody's belly button is showing

My sweet girl (Shout out to Amanda for the darling onesie!! I'm still working on thank you cards...don't judge)

Who knows what next week will bring! :)  Silly Avery.

Avery

Our little family officially became a family of three Tuesday!!  Late Tuesday evening we welcomed Avery to our lives and we cannot get enough of her! 

I put weeks of walking into getting her here as I had envisioned - through spontaneous labor - but when that didn't work opted for an induction.  After putting a good 14.5 hours into that, including an hour of pushing, it became apparent that route wasn't going to work either.  My doctor was so excellent about it all and really helped me feel great about my efforts, so I was very appreciative and have no regrets.


We were prepped for the operating room and happily not only was Richard of course was by my side, but my sister was also allowed in to take pictures.  The baby was delivered and I was completely shocked when they called out the baby's weight - nine pounds eight ounces!!  Unbelievable!!

The recovery has been going well.  Richard has been wonderful.  My parents and sister came to town to help us and have been a huge blessing and a fun group of cheerleaders to share the moment with.  If you've been kept in the loop it is likely due to their efforts and we are so grateful!  We appreciated all the well-wishes that came in via email, text, phone calls, and prayers and are grateful for everyone's excitement and patience!

We are looking forward to Richard's parents visiting next week and siblings visiting soon thereafter.  It is such a blessing to bring Avery into such a loving family. 

Here are some pictures of miss Avery (since I know she's the real highlight of this entry...and likely will be taking over the theme of the whole blog soon...LOL).

Enjoy!

Here she is!

9 lbs 8 oz

A little swollen, but so beautiful

Our first family photo

Mommy enjoying her first look

Our gorgeous girl

The countdown is on...

It's hard to believe, but tomorrow at this time we'll be holding our sweet little girl!  I can hardly wrap my mind around it.  

And maybe soon thereafter I'll look and feel like myself again!!

 

...but not yet!!

Our deepest thanks to all those sending us well-wishes!!  We love you and are grateful for your love, support, and prayers!!

Time is racing by

When Richard and I first got married, his mom said to us - be sure to enjoy the journey.  I love that advice: to not only look forward to the eventual destination, but to also enjoy every moment along the way.

And so I find myself marking lots of milestones and looking forward to each one...

Not just anticipating Richard's graduation, but enjoying completing each year, celebrating each semester's success, starting the clinical years, etc.

But the milestones seem to be rushing by lately, like I hardly have time to enjoy each moment.

Richard has completed so many rotations it seems routine now and he's nearing the one-year mark to graduation!   We're starting into the 4th year rotation applications which forces you to face the bigger questions of where you'll spend your residency and to which medical field you're going to commit.  We've talked and looked forward to these decisions for so long, but to be considering them seems unreal.

And then there's this idea that in a matter of days our lives as we know them will be considerably altered.  I can hardly believe we will be parenting together - Richard's always saying he'd like to share a hobby...guess we'll have one now!!

I've entered the visit the doctor every week phase, completed the scrub your house from top to bottom for your impending guests phase, checked off the last baby shower, and packed my bags.  I'm so grateful to have work so I don't drive myself crazy thinking about the baby coming all day!

And so the next milestone of the journey will be coming soon - and we are so excited to meet her!

The diaper cake the girls made me and used to decorate the dual shower - one of my co-workers was due 2 weeks after me, but she totally showed me up by having her baby last Tuesday - 4 days after the shower!

The lovely ladies who threw the shower - the whole department was in on it, but with our crazy work schedules, all except these two were pulled onto projects and missed the shower! :( lol.

Straightening the bounty from my work shower - everyone was so generous!  I felt like a kid at Christmas and could not stop smiling all day!

And for good measure a belly shot...still growing!  I've been walking to get her to drop...believe it or not from the picture, she has...but I think I better keep walking!!  38 weeks and 5 days.

And I added this one too bc what you cant see is Richard trying to get a real smile out of me and it makes me laugh so hard to think of it.  38 weeks 4 days.

34 weeks, Valentine's Day, and Gavin's arrival

Here I am at 34 weeks...oh wait, that's just how I feel!  Late February was Regional Training for work which means a lot of planning, overtime, and presenting on my feet.  It went really well, but that coupled with a work trip the following week resulted in some nasty swelling that has decided to stick with me for the duration of the pregnancy I'm afraid.  Still, I consider myself lucky.

Here's a real picture of me yesterday.  I really do love being pregnant.  It's not very glamorous or kind, but I love this special time with me and the baby.  I can't get enough of her kicks and jolts and octopus-like movements.  It's incredible how much you can love somebody you have never seen.  I'll find out toward the end of the month "how big she is" and I'm praying the revelation will be in my favor.  I'm even worried bringing Richard to the appointment may sway the ultra-sound tech's opinion...maybe he should stay home... :)

February rushed by, no surprise - Richard put together the perfect Valentines date for me.  These days I'm just tired, so instead of going out, Richard surprised me with a vase of beautiful roses and a card in the morning, and a delicious home-cooked meal when I got home from work in the evening.  It was just what I wanted!  He made his signature chicken quesadillas.  They are so scrumptious.  I didn't have to cook or shop for it.  I felt so wonderfully lazy!  Richard then surprised me again with martinellis to accompany the meal.  And to finish it off - in typical Richard fashion - we had little debbie cakes.  :)  Very high class.  It was so perfect.  Our last Valentine's day with just the two of us!

  

Another exciting event occurred - baby Gavin arrived!  I was able to take off of work to be present when the baby came.  It was great to spend time with Logan, Patrick, Ayden, and Mom and Dad.  At the hospital Ayden wore her "Big Sister" shirt and enjoyed telling every person she saw "I'm a big sister!"  It was precious!  

The night before - yummy Mexican

Logan labored very quickly, but unfortunately had to endure most of it without an epidural.  The drugs finally kicked in right before she started to push.

Cute, cute Ayden.  This is her new pose for pictures.

Here's the little man - such a cutie

He didn't LOVE his first bath at home...

One more shot of miss Ayden.  She adjusted so well to her new baby brother.

It was a great long weekend.  And it was the last big milestone in my mind before our baby comes.  So now I'm in full gear preparing the house and checking things off my endless to-do list.  I can't believe I'm almost a month away!!  We are so excited!  And it's such a comfort to know that family reinforcements are coming to visit, lend a hand, and dote on our new arrival.

Getting close!