She's here!! Welcome to the world...

She's here - she is finally here!!

Ok, so I'm a little late in posting the news considering tomorrow she will be one week old - hopefully you'll cut me some slack seeing how I'm a new parent and all ;)

I'm not going to lie, labor was not fun. But the staff at Texas Childrens Hospital and our Doctor were all wonderful and made the process a little bit easier to deal with. I was meant to be induced on May 18th in the evening. All day I had been telling the baby that it was time to come out now - and she listened! By the time we checked in to the hospital I was already in early labor on my own, so we didn't have to induce. I was so pleased at that news.

And then Friday night turned into Saturday morning. And then morning turned in afternoon. And then afternoon turned to evening. And then evening turned to night. 

And still no baby.

Man, I was so hungry (I wasn't allowed to eat anything eight hours before the induction time, and only allowed ice chips once I was checked in).

Besides having the baby the only thought on my mind was GIVE ME SOME FOOD!!

Typical, right??

Our first picture of Kaitlin sent out to friends and family - taken minutes after birth!

We were getting to the end of of our rope (and on our third round of nurses) when finally it was time!

(I'll spare you the details)

And at the very end I got to see this amazingly perfect little face and it was all worth it.

So, how have we been doing since then? Pretty good I would say!

We were able to stay in the hospital for three nights after she was delivered which was a god sent. The nurses and lactation team were angels and it was so helpful to have them on hand for whatever our needs or concerns were. It was also helpful to have the nursery close by so that Dad and I could get some sleep and try to get some energy back.

We finally checked out on Tuesday night and spent out first night at home as a new family of three.

Boy, was that interesting.

To say there have been ups and downs, good moments and bad, laughter and tears would be the understatement of the century. But slowly, we are getting there. We are learning about Kaitlin and she is learning about us. The biggest thing that I (we) have to remember is that it's going to take time.

It will take time to learn her hunger cues.

It will take time to learn how much she should and shouldn't be sleeping.

It will take time (for both of us) to get the hang of this breast feeding thing.

It will take time for all of us to operate as a threesome. 

Luckily, time is something we have plenty of.

I'm going to be starting another Weekly Update page - Watch Me Grow!

Starting with tomorrow I will feature a weekly photo of Kaitlin growing bigger and cuter every day.

I figured you have seen enough of my belly (and it's not nearly as cute now).

So stick around - we have a lot more to share with you!

PS - I have decided that babys fingernails are the cutest things I have EVER seen. I mean seriously, how are they so small and perfect??