Welcome to the family...

Well, there is a good reason as to why the blog has seen very little love in the last few weeks...our sweet girl arrived on June 5th. Here's the highlights:

The week before I saw my midwife twice and was already three cm dilated and progressing nicely. She thought I'd go on my own but if not we planned an induction for Sunday, June 5th. On the 5th we headed to the hospital and checked in at 8AM. By 9:30 everything was ready and all my paperwork was done. Around 10 they started pitocin and by 11:30 they broke my water. Around 1ish I received an epidural and at this point I was really curious to see how fast things would go. With AG I received an epidural and he was born 2.5/3 hours later after pushing for 30 minutes. Around 1:30 my mom brought AG by to see us after they had lunch at Moe's with Aunt Caro and Uncle Clay. She then took AG home to nap and wait to hear from us. At 3 they checked me and said I was 5/6. Shortly after that Caroline and Clay came back up along with Ginny and Julie to visit for a bit. At 4:45 Ginn and Jules left to let me rest...ha. Well, after they left my nurse checked me and I was a 10 and ready to push. I started pushing at 5PM. I pushed for two sets of contractions and on the third they told me to just let her do the work. I pushed for a total of 7 minutes. Afterwards, Andy goes, "not to take away from what just happened but it was kind of anti-climatic because it happened so fast." Ha. He was right. He then texted Ginny and Julie to let them know that I delivered immediately after they left. The nurses joked it was a 9-5 job. The whole thing was a breeze and I'm grateful we decided to induce a week early because if we hadn't Avi-Kate would have been 9 punds plus. As it is she was 8 pounds 9.4 ounces and 21 inches long. Almost a full pound heavier and an inch longer than her big brother when he was born! And she is a redhead! Her hair is the same color AG's was when he was born. I guess we'll just have to wait and see if it ends up being the exact same shade or if it's darker/lighter. Andy and I were surprised because we really thought she'd have brown hair. She looks just like her big brother...only bigger. :) Here are a few pics from the hospital...

AG was elated to finally meet his sister that evening. He immediately started giving her kisses and playing peek-a-boo with her. We stayed till Tuesday morning and were at home and settled before noon. And now we enter the world parenting two children...here goes nothing. :)