That weekend...

Right after you were born, your Daddy and I had a few minutes alone with you before all of your family who had been waiting all day for you, came in to see you.

Naturally, like most mothers do right after child birth ;) , I grabbed my camera and started taking pictures of the special moment.

Grandma Debbie and Aunt Jessie were the first to run into the room. They had been listening outside the delivery room door the whole time!
Of course, they were so excited to finally see you.
The look on your grandmas' faces are priceless!
Everyone was trying to get in a peek.
Grandma was the first to hold you other than your Daddy.
Then Grandma Vickie, who has informed us she wants to be called "Grammy".
Aunt Jessie waved hello to you.
Then Poppa Jeff got to see you. Did I fail to mention you were the first grandchild on both sides....SPOILED!!
Proud Granddaddy Red.
Even Uncle Jacob came to see you.

The Armstrongs.
The Ewings and Smiths.

After everyone met you, you went to take your first bath, and I sent the camera with Daddy.

That first night you stayed in the room with us and you slept pretty well. The next morning we were able to dress you ourselves in a sweet gown your cousin Heather bought for you.
I hadn't even washed my face before Uncle Jake and Aunt Jessie came back that morning to see you.
There were a lot of visitors planning to come to the hospital that day, so you needed to rest up. You got to cuddle a lot with Daddy on his chest.

I was able to shower and fix my hair before more guests came to visit.

This is your first meeting with Landon, your cousin who is just one month older than you.
Your great-grandparents, Harvie and Evelyn Ewing, came to see you. You were the fourth great-grandchild for them that had been born that year.
Your Daddy's Uncle Wayne and Aunt Chi Chi.
Cousin Jill, who is having her first little girl this summer, Isabella Sue:)
Cousin Mindy, who is also having another baby this fall.
Your cheerleading friends couldn't wait to see you, since they had watched my belly grow for nine months!
And of course, trailing in around 9:00 p.m. that night, after visiting hours...was THE CREW. Your daddy's best friends with "Aunt Leslie and Aunt Flossy". We laughed at Chad as he read to you the guest book that everyone signed in a "Mother Goose" voice.
That second night in the hospital was not the best. The nurses recommended that you sleep on my chest since you'll want to be near me. I didn't fall asleep until 6:30a.m. the morning we were going home. Here you are with me and the flowers Chad brought for us.
We dressed in pink in honor of our little girl.
This was your 'going home' outfit that Granddaddy and Grammy Ewing bought for you. We both went home in pearls.
You cried the whole time the photographer tried to take your baby pictures. Needless to say, we didn't order any! You were ready to go home and so were we!

That morning...

The morning you were born was the most exciting, weirdest, nervous morning your Daddy and I have ever experienced. When you get older and get to wake up to all the presents that Santa Claus has brought you, and you're sooooo excited you just can't sleep at all the night before, then you'll almost understand just how excited we were to go to the hospital to have you.

Dr. Freeman was your doctor, and he called us the day before to see if we wanted to come in Friday morning, May 22, at 6:30 a.m. to be induced. I had to call your Daddy, Poppa Jeff, and Grandma Debbie to see if we should do it then. We all decided to go ahead and plan to have you on May 22, 2009, even though your due wasn't until May 29. It was Memorial Day weekend and all your family from Glennville would be able to come up to Lawrenceville and see you the day you were born, which was very important to me.

This is what I looked like at 39 weeks pregnant, after gaining 31 pounds with you, on the way out of the door to the hospital. Your daddy and I had already drafted a text to all of our friends in our phones that we were planning to send out when we were on the way to the hospital. That morning at 6:00 a.m, we were so excited to hit "send" and let everyone know you were going to be born that day!

We checked into the hospital around 6:30 a.m., and they hooked me up to pitocin to start my labor. I DEFINITELY received an epidural, which didn't hurt as bad as I thought it would. After that, it was close to 7:30 a.m. and we had 10 hours of waiting, visiting, napping, and watching T.V. before you arrived.

Your Granddaddy and Granny Ewing came early that morning to wait at the hospital. So did your Great-grandparents "Ma Ma and Da Da", your great-aunt Sandy, and then around 11:30 a.m., your Grandma Debbie, Poppa Jeff, Aunt Jessica, and Uncle Jacob arrived. They couldn't wait to meet you!

The day was pretty laid back and mellow. Your daddy and I didn't get much sleep the night before because we were so excited to see you the next day, so we tried to nap a little in the hospital. Since I was hooked up to all these machines, I couldn't eat anything all day, except for ice. We had another visitor that day, your self-proclaimed Uncle Cliff! (He's not really your uncle, though!) He wanted you to be born on your real due date because that was his birthday. Cliff is a Gwinnett County Fire Fighter and one of our best friends. He had to work that night and wasn't going to be able to see you, so he stopped by before you were born.

Around 4:30 p.m., I knew the time was getting closer for you to be here. I asked your Aunt Jessie for my makeup bag, and decided to 'put my face on'. I wasn't in any pain, except for some mild contractions on my right side where the epidural didn't work as well, so I wanted to get 'prettied up' for when you arrived. At 5:00 p.m. I started pushing, and at 5:25 p.m. you were born!

Your Daddy cut your umbilical cord and they took you straight over to the nurses for clean up. You weighed 6 lbs even and measured 19 inches long. You were a tiny thing! (Sometimes I wish you still weighed 6 lbs and maybe my left wrist wouldn't be hurting so much from carrying you around.) Your Daddy got to hold you first, which I was OK with:) He asked me, "Do you want to hold her?" I thought, "What kind of question is that...and what do you think?" Of course I wanted to hold you...duh! You were all wrapped up and kinda gooey from the gel the nurses put on your eyes, but you were PERFECT! Our lives have never been the same since then.

We called your Grandmas and Aunt Jessie and asked if they wanted to meet you.....

(and tomorrow I'll tell you what happened!)

Planning a Party!

In five days our little baby will be ONE YEAR OLD! I know people say "it flies by", "I can't believe it's been a year already", and all that jazz. Really, it does feel like it's been a year. I can remember every stage of her first year, and none of it happened without me noticing or documenting it.

With that being said, a BIG PARTY is on the calendar for our birthday girl. We are having a "pool party" this Sunday, a day after her actual birthday. Here is her invitation:

And the back:
After unsuccessfully searching online for the perfect invitation, I got on Photoshop and viola'! Not so bad, I do say so myself. We are going with a "pool" theme with beach balls and a swimsuit cake. There will be kiddy pools in the backyard for all her cousins and friends to swim around in. As of now, there are a total of 8 little kids coming over, all between the ages of 1-3 years old. It should be a blast.

Check out the comparison between Avery's picture at 1 week old, and nearly a year old. All that dark hair fell out and grew back blonde. There are also a few more 'rolls' and teeth that have appeared since then.
This entire week will be a dedication to Avery's first year! Instead of writing a massive post about the day she was born, with waaaay to many pictures for one post to handle, I'm going to post something new everyday this week from that wonderful day she was born and the weekend we brought her home. Check back for more tomorrow!

Avery's many faces on Mother's Day

Mother's Day 2010 got off to a rough start, but ended well. I can't complain at all because I was able to spend it with Michael and Avery, and some mothers didn't, or weren't, able to spend it with their family...so for that reason, it was a great Mother's Day.

We went to Lake Lanier, where you'll see many pictures of us this summer, to visit with Michael's parents. The day was actually quite windy and chilly, but I never pass up an opportunity to be on the water. Avery had many different expressions throughout the day that I captured on camera.

Here she is directing the captain where to go. She kept us safe by avoiding islands and other boats.

She's eating something here, probably a Goldfish.
This is the look she's giving her daddy while he's trying to make her smile. This face is very common if you are acting like a fool to entertain her and she's not very amused!
Daddy won and got a smile out of her.
I asked her how much she loved me and she said, "Thiiiiiiiiiiiiiisssss much!"
Hahaha, oh Lord! All I can think when I see this is "bless Michael's heart." He probably sees this expression more than I realize, but somehow still puts up with me.
Yaay! Finally a good one of both of us.
If you look closely you can see her two top teeth.
All was well in Avery's world until we put on her life jacket. She kept trying to push it off her face, squishing her cheeks while doing it.

Her daddy didn't seem to mind his so much.

This face just makes me laugh. She's looking at her Granddaddy here, waiting for him to do something amazing.
Uh-oh! Avery fell. It's ok, though. We just clap our hands and say, "Yaaay! It's ok!"
But for some reason, I don't think she believes us.