lots of visitors and lots of help

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU to everyone who has been so generous and helpful!

We have been so lucky to have so much help. Annie already has so many people who love her!

Meg was especially helpful. She cleaned and cooked and slaved away for us and I can't possibly thank her enough! We were a little teary saying good bye at the airport:

Nana is in town, but she is possibly Annie's number one fan:

In perfect timing, Sarah and Laura were here from Colorado:

Conor couldn't make it, but Happy 28th to him (it was on the 14th)!:

parenting is exhausting

Exhibit A (I swear this is not a posed picture. He actually fell asleep with 2 throw blankets, 1 sweatshirt, 1 baby nightgown, 1 receiving blanket, 1 head support pillow I use while nursing, and 1 ever-present boppy):

We are doing really well, I think, all things considered, but the truth of the matter is that we just aren't sleeping much. I am up 2-3 times/night for about 30 min-1 hr. Chris sleeps more than I do, but not by much.

Annie Notes

She came out just as curled up as she was in the womb, just like she was in every ultrasound picture. She was just a little ball for a long time but she is now stretching out constantly.

I had no idea she would so small. For some reason I really thought I was going to give birth to a 10 pound chunk, but she is teeny tiny. Her low weight was 6 lb 6 oz.

She makes so many faces. She'll make a horrible face like she is about to start screaming, but she doesn't and I think she is just practicing her expressions.

You always hear, "they grow so fast!" I don't know if this is true because I see her all the time, but she undoubtedly gets smarter every day. I cannot get over it. She is so alert now and loves to play, although not for long.

I am nominating Chris for best husband and Anne for best baby. I slept from 10:30 - 2:45 last night!

I heard that the burning question after birth (replacing is it a boy or a girl?) is, what color are her eyes? Right now they are dark blue. Stay tuned as they change the first year.

Her hair is also a mysteriously unknown color. It is brown, but sometimes seems blonde and sometimes a little red. So we will see. She gets a lot of compliments on the amount of hair she has. It is a cute amount on top, but the back is a complete mullet that may or may not be slightly curly! Her eyelashes are very light (she will hate them later and wish for long, dark ones, I'm sure).

The other common question is, who does she look like? She changes every day so it is hard to tell. She certainly has Chris features (e.g. her mouth and her cowlick) but her cheeks are all Harper and growing every day.

Our attempt at an artsy pic:

In her cosleeper looking tiny (she loves to sleep on her side like her mom):

She adores being outside (and in her dad's arms):

birth story

We guessed it! Our baby GIRL, Anne Theresa Prevatt, was born on July 22 at 11:14 p.m. weighing 7 lb 3 oz and 21 inches long. Annie’s absolutely perfect and I am amazed by her and how much I love her – every motherhood cliché is true! There are no words to express how happy I am.

Here’s the story of Anne's birthday:
My BP was high, so Dr. C. decided to induce labor at 38 weeks, 6 days. I went in to be induced at 7:30 a.m. The nurse checked me and I was 1 cm dilated so she started pitocin at 8. Dr. C. came in around 9 and broke my water. I asked him not to because I wanted to see how/if I would progress but he talked me into so we did it. Around noon, I was about 3 cm and feeling mostly back contractions, not too intense. Well, I stayed at 3 cm basically all afternoon. They checked me at 5 and I was 5 cm but the baby’s head hadn’t descended at all. They had put an internal monitor in and I was on a lot of pit, and by this point I was not comfortable. I was contracting hard and frequently, but I just wasn’t progressing like the doc wanted. I finally got the epidural around 7, and I was only 6 cm. At 8 the doc wanted to do a caesarean as the head was still way up there, and I told him no. He gave me until 10:30 and there was no change so c-section it was. I guess my body just wasn’t ready for labor in the first place. I thought the c-section it was absolutely terrifying. I was shaking like crazy and my teeth were chattering uncontrollably.

Annie is perfect, though, and I am feeling pretty good. Chris has been absolutely fantastic and is doing/saying all the right things. Overall, I am sore, tired, emotional, and feeling a bit like a milk cow, but nothing is unexpected and I am just feeling so lucky.

More to come and pictures! I have got to come up with an easier way of getting my pictures off our camera. It is such an ordeal that I just don't want to spend the time doing it.