10 Days Old

Well, I'm sure that everyone knows by now, but our little Anna made her way into our world on December 17th. We had a scheduled induction for the 17th at 7:30 am and sure enough at 4:30 am my water broke! So we got up, got our stuff together and headed to the hospital. I still can't believe how smoothly everything went, and I feel incredibly lucky. We got to the hospital and got settled in and after a couple hours of painful contractions that just kept getting worse, my nurse said that now was the time to get an epidural if I wanted to. Did I want to...um, yeah I did! I will just say this for anyone ever to have a baby...the epidural is your best friend. I was SOO much more comfortable after only a couple minutes. Dane and I spent the next few hours napping and resting while my body prepared for the birth. At about 1:00 pm the nurse said I was fully dialated and wanted to see what happened if we started pushing, and sure enough, two pushes into it she could already see the head! I ended up pushing for about 20 minutes and then the most miraculous thing happened. Anna was placed on my stomach for me to get a good look at her for the first time. It is something that I will carry with me for the rest of my life. Dane and I couldn't take our eyes off her...she was perfect! Anna came into this world weighing 8lbs 9oz and was 19 inches long...and beautiful!

We stayed in the hospital for only one night and came home the following day in the afternoon. We were all ready to come home and get settled and Grandma Dufault was here with dinner ready and open arms to hold Anna! :) It's definitely been a transition getting use to the sleep deprivation and feeling like my only use right now is to be a 24 hour feeding station. But I knew that this was the way it would be at first, so we're just trying to push through, and thankfully Dane has been my rock and become quite the expert diaper changer. I think one of my favorite parts of this whole parenthood role is watching Dane with his little girl and seeing the love in his eyes that just keeps growing with every day that passes. We are both totally and utterly in love with this little girl.

We had a wonderful Christmas this year and I must say that Anna stole the show! My parents and Dane's parent's were at our house for Christmas Eve and we had a delicious turkey dinner with all the extras that Dane's parents prepared. We exchanged gifts and ate lots of food and snuggled Anna all day long. Everyone was properly spoiled and I just feel more and more thankful for such a special family. My mom made a delicious breakfast the next morning that Dane's folks joined us for and then the rest of the day was spent with just me, Dane and Anna relaxing and taking naps. That's pretty much all our days consist of lately...I'm lucky if I get a shower in there somewhere! :)

Well, as I type this my sweet little angel is waking up from a nap is starting to root around for dinner! Duty calls! I will add more in the next day or so...we are very excited because my brother and his family will be coming into town on Saturday and staying with us through the new year. We can't wait to see them and are excited to introduce them to their new niece/cousin!