I'll try to sprinkle a few of those pictures through a quick run down on her birth story, because quite frankly, both kiddos are napping and I want in on a few zzzzz. (I stopped blogging midway and managed to get in a 15 minute rest time before the littlest one was awake.)
Christmas vacation had started for D and we took advantage by staying up late to watch a movie. Around 1:30 a.m. the morning of Christmas Eve, I went to sleep while he stayed up to finish a few last minute Christmas surprises. At 3:15 a.m. I woke up with the pretty certain feeling that my water had broken. After calling the doctor and confirming that it indeed had and we should go in to the hospital, we called our parents. Within twenty minutes both of our dads were at our house. When we woke Gavin up so he could go to my parent's house, he started jumping in his bed with excitement that his little sister was coming.
I'm pretty sure that D filled up his coffee mug since he had not gone to sleep and after a quick stop at the gas station, we arrived at the hospital. Needless to say, not many people were on the roads that early in the morning but D still felt it was his only chance for a good excuse to speed there. I distinctly remember how extraordinarily beautiful the Christmas lights were.
I won't go into the details, but let's just say that my water had broken and that's about all of the progress I had made when we arrived at the3 hospital. The three nurses I had were all very sweet, but I am so glad that the Maria, the nurse I had the majority of the time, was not only sweet but so knowledgeable.
We had been praying for the nurses and doctors. And even though my doctor was not able to be there, the doctor we had did a fine job with the exception of yelling at someone on the phone while I was laboring.
Fast forward about 12 hours from when my water broke to 3 p.m. I am alone in the room with just the nurse because our family had stepped out to let D and I get some rest. He had also stepped out to get something to eat. The nurse checks me again and says it's time to push. Since D had my cell phone, I used the hospital phone to try to call him and our family. I however, kept getting the answering machine for the chaplain. After I stopped panicking, I realized I had to dial 9 first.
This labor was so much easier than Gavin's. After a few rounds of pushing, Miss Ava Grace Moore made her way into the world. No other Christmas present could top her. My first thoughts when seeing Gavin were about how big he was, but little sister was so much more petite. That was until I got a good look at her arms, fingers and legs. If her four day check up is any indication of her future, she is going to be one tall and skinny girl (80% percentile for height and 18% for weight).
We were so blessed to have most of our family there even on a day like Christmas Eve. The next two pictures look like girls verses guys.
Gavin is over the moon about his little sister. Here's our first family picture together.
With Gavin I was nearly begging to stay an extra day in the hospital, but this time around, I was determined we were going to be home the next day for Christmas. My dad brought Gavin up on Christmas Day to partake in his sibling congratulations cake and to take the Moore family Christmas picture. Gavin also thought it was hilarious to have his daddy swaddle him like a baby.
A few hours later, Ava and I received the ok to go home. We took a few pictures in her going home outfit which was a dress and slip I wore as a baby. You can't see from the picture, but on the slip, I had both of our initials monogrammed.
This post is long enough but hopefully I will get to document Christmas and the rest of the week, although the events that incurred are not something I will likely ever forget.
