Welcome Little One...

It's officially our due date..August 3rd (well...actually...since I didn't get this completed yesterday as planned it's technically the 4th and one day past our due date). As much as I had planned that this day would come and go...all while impatiently waiting for baby girl to arrive...I am thrilled to say we got to spend the day with the newest member of our family.

Akayla Joy arrived on Sunday, July 28th at 11:37am...6 days early. She weighed 7lb 8oz and was 20.5 inches long.

Here are how things unfolded...

Friday, July 26th: Had my weekly doctors appt. My doctor, who I must say has been absolutely amazing, did an exam and confirmed that my cervix was still closed and I wasn't dilated. I wasn't disappointed by this news...we still another 8 days until my due date and I think the statistics say that most first time moms are late. I mentally had already begun preparing myself that I wouldn't deliver by my due date. I did, however, have an agreement with my doctor not to go past August 9th.

Saturday, July 27th: After a rather long and unusual night. I think I had gotten up at least 5 times to go to the bathroom and each time I woke up I noticed cramps that were getting progressively worse. I didn't think to much of it until I woke at 5:30am. I thought to myself...is this the start of something?? Could this possibly be it?? For the past month, I had been telling Mr. every time I felt something "new" or "different" which, on multiple occasions, resulted in me saying to him "this might be it!". Most times he wouldn't believe me or would say "this baby isn't coming anytime soon...she's going to be late...probably will be the 9th".

Once I got downstairs I started thinking of all the things I needed to get done...I'm not sure if this is considered nesting or a last minute scramble. My bags were half packed...I had some things together but not everything. I needed to wash baby clothes..especially baby's coming home outfit. My mother in law was coming into town from out of state in the evening. In my mind, and in recent discussions with her, we had talked about all the things we would do together before the baby arrived. I would officially be on leave from work and looked forward to having her here to help me finish getting the baby things together...washing the baby clothes and getting the house ready. Her flight had been booked months ago...and now I began to think she may get here just in time for the birth. I spent the morning doing laundry and packing the hospital bags. As much as I wanted to run in and tell Mr. that I thought it WAS REALLY HAPPENING, I knew he was going to need his sleep. When he finally got up I told him...and of course, he had a lot of doubt. It didn't take too long for him to see that it really was looking like labor. I probably over did it a little during our time at home but I just couldn't sit still. I was full of emotions...excited, scared, nervous, anxious. Finally, after tracking and timing the contractions for a few hours Mr. called the nurse line at the hospital. They told us to wait until the labor pains were intense and less than 5 minutes apart.

I must admit, I am a baby when it comes to pain. My pain tolerance is low...very low. So we waited...and waited at home as long as I could. At 3:30pm I told Mr. I was ready. We really didn't want to get the hospital and be told we needed to leave and come back but at this point I was ready to take that risk just to get there. The car ride seemed long and uncomfortable. While I would love to share the highs and lows of the whole labor I don't want to cross the line of sharing TMI so I will keep it simple...we were admitted and after a LOOONNNNGGGG sleepless night with little progress I finally had little baby girl at 11:37am...just over 30 hours of labor. While the labor and delivery did not come easy I can say it was all so worth it...and truly the best day of my life.

Mr. with his bundle of joy

My mother-in-law (aka Yaya) who arrived in plenty of time for the arrival

Enjoying every minute with the newest (and most beautiful!) member of our family

On a side note, I must apologize that we didn't get to take one final maternity/belly picture before she arrived. We had planned to take a 39 week picture on Saturday or Sunday (but, of course, because I went into labor we didn't get a chance to).

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