I'm not saying that our little outing at the Arboretum is what threw me into full-fledged labor last Saturday, but I'm also not saying that it's not. I had more intense and time-able contractions start around 3 that afternoon. We were in the hospital by 8:30 and at 11:45 pm on April 19, 2014, Paige Audrey Alley made her entrance into the world. She weighed 7 lb, 4 oz, and was 20 inches long. She's perfect.
I'll save the gory details for her birth story on her one-year birthday, but it was a pretty uneventful labor and delivery, which is good, because we'd heard some horror stories about third children almost being delivered in the car. Here we are on the ride up to our room. It was about 2 in the morning. For the record, morning and afternoon deliveries are much more preferable than late night deliveries.
Here she is first thing the next morning. She kind of looks like she's been through a lot, doesn't she? There's no deep reason why we chose the name Paige. It's just one that we both really liked and thought that it fit well with Brooke and Miles (we like our single-syllable noun names around here). Her middle name, Audrey, is for Matt's grandma, who is an amazing, strong and loving woman that we both respect, love and admire.
The next morning was Easter, and Paige's birth was a great reminder of the new life that Christ's death and resurrection makes available to us. As I look back on it, it was also really special and touching to have almost all of both of our families there together to meet Paige that next morning. At one point, I think we counted 14 people in the room. My dad actually drove up and down in one day for the chance to meet her. She's a very lucky and loved little lady.
Because we were only in the hospital for about 36 hours and it was a holiday weekend (and let's be honest, she's the third child), we didn't have many visitors after that, but our great friends Michelle and Kristina came by Easter night to meet her.
And this. This is what I'd been waiting for. Matt was actually so excited to tell Brooke that she had a sister (she said the night before that she'd cry if I had a boy) that he went home first thing in the morning to tell her. The video is too long to post on here, but it's very sweet and touching. Miles was also really enamored with her.
The girls. It's still weird to reference my daughterS. I honestly kind of thought all along that she was a girl, but thinking it and the reality are two different things. It took me a day or two to get my head around.
Maybe it's the hormones, but I cannot get enough of B and M loving on her. These pictures get me choked up every time.
Miles was also excited to see that I still had some food left from breakfast. Classic.
Matt resting after everyone left. He'd had a really hard day.
In her "going home" outfit from Aunt Krissi and Uncle Tim. The one we brought was too big. Surprise, surprise.
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