Bringing Home Baby Ava

I'm back. It is so good to be home and back to Scott and Brielle and our house and my blog. Thank you so much to all of you who left us comments about the birth of little Ava. It was so nice to read all of them and feel your love and excitement for us. Thank you. Thank you.

This experience of having another little girl has definitely been amazing. It's such a miracle. I must say though that the birth of Brielle was way easier! My water broke, I went to the hospital, they couldn't tell me to go home, they gave me an epidural and I didn't feel much of anything at all. Well, this time around I was not so lucky! I know all of you who have teased me are smiling right now. Man! It hurt!! Bad! I started having contractions at 5:30am and they fluctuated through the day at about 7 - 30 minutes apart. They finally were taken care of with an epidural at 9:00pm! Thank heaven! It was such a long and hard and painful and frustrating day to be hurting so bad, but not knowing if the labor was real or not. We spent the day driving to Fred and Rama's to drop Brie off, back to our house, to the hospital, back to Fred and Rama's, back to the hospital (didn't go in, walked around the mall instead to see what was happening), back to Fred and Rama's and then finally to the hospital again. I was beyond THRILLED when they said I had dilated to a 5 and they would keep me. I was even more excited when the nurse said, "Would you like your epidural now?".

I was in total awe when they put little Ava on me just after being delivered. She was gorgeous! She looked chubby to me. She has little rolls. She didn't look like Brie to me, but is looking more and more like her I think. She has been so good. She is a great sleeper and a great eater. She is wide awake and alert more than Brie was. We are so excited about her and I can't wait to get to know her. She's absolutely perfect!

We got to leave the hospital Friday night at 10pm (48 hours after delivery). It was crazy to be bringing another little girl home. On the drive I was thinking this little baby was so safe in a warm, cozy, watery home and now she's strapped into a car seat flying down the freeway at 70 mph. Poor thing. She's been through a lot.

Ava kept us up most of that first night. I think mostly because her little noises were new to us, so we heard every one. She slept ALL day her first day though. It was all I could do to get her to wake up and feed her. Yesterday was our first day home. Here are some pictures of our day.

Baby Ava sleeping on Uncle Bryce. Bryce came up from BYU and spent the day with us. It was great to have him here to play with Brie and nap with Ava.

Brie is excited about all of the new baby stuff that is coming out of storage.

Bryce and Ava napping in preparation for the BYU football game.

Scott took Brielle to Build A Bear for her first time. Scott thought it would be fun for her to have something fun and new. He had high hopes that she would choose to make the monkey or the turtle. He was very disappointed when from the moment they walked in she wanted a big, fluffy, pink bear. That is what she came home with and she LOVES this new bear!

Brielle and daddy giving the new bear a bath.

Brielle and her new Build A Bear.

Scott took care of everything for me yesterday. He even strapped Brielle and the new pink fluffy bear onto his back (she was so excited) while he mowed the lawn.

My mom can't be here for the new baby (she's in Germany), but somehow when mom can't be around there are siblings that can be when a baby is born. We are so lucky that Landon came to town from Virginia and that Bryce could come up from Provo. Yesterday they set up two TVs and a surround sound stereo system so that they could watch the BYU and Utah games at the same time. Nice huh? This was Scott's heaven. Here they are with lasagna dinner.