37 1/2 Weeks in the Making...

...and worth the wait.

Allie Dover

arrived Friday, April 9th 2010 at 2:56 PM.

I went into the Dr's on Friday... had been walking around for almost a month dilated to a 5 and 90% effaced with her dropped to a 0 and totally contracting 24-7... and now was totally effaced and dilated to a 6. Hallelujah- the wait was over! I was sent straight to the hospital VIP style with a room all ready for me. The hospital is brand new and was fabulous in every way. My nurse Pam was AMAZING. The paper work/blood tests/computer questions seemed to take forever (ok just over an hour, but I had already made two prior visits for pre-term labor so I thought it would already be taken care of!) and once that was out of the way I got an IV, Epidural, they broke my water, and less than an hour and twenty minutes later...

We welcomed Allie into the world! We were ecstatic to see her beautiful little face and perfect body. What a relief after such an emotional, rollercoaster pregnancy! She was perfectly sized..

7 pounds 9 ounces

20 1/4 inches long

I cried, she cried!

And Ger was such an awesome strength and support through the whole thing. He was so excited you would have thought it was our first.

The kids are absolutely in LOVE with her. They came to see her just a few hours after she was born and were so tender and sweet with her. They each held her three times- they couldn't get enough of her. Sydney is a natural!

Mia doesn't sit still for long usually, but I think she could have sat and held little Allie for as long as we would have let her. She just kept giggling and talking to her... telling Allie how she used to play with her and tickle her when she was in my tummy.

Colby just kept saying, look at her cute little nose! It's perfect! Look at her little lips! They are so cute. He gave her a gazillion kisses. He couldn't take his eyes off her, even when someone else was holding her.

I don't have many pics of her eyes open! Such a sleepy head... she wasn't even 24 hours old in this pic I took at the hospital! But her eyes are super dark obviously- who knows what color they will be?!? But her hair looks like it will end up light since it has a slight blonde tint to it... and it seems to have a little wave in it? Maybe it will be curly like Sydney's! She has a ton of it- lots in the back too.

It's hard to say who she looks like- newborns little faces change so much! But her features look like Sydney's baby pics and her face shape like Colby's maybe? Who knows...

But she is practically perfect in every way. We are so in love with her and feel so incredibly blessed to have her in our family. She is very sweet... I haven't wanted to put her down since Friday and have loved every minute. I am feeling great, though forgot how sleepless the nights are. bah! ;-) She is "sleeping" through the nights for the most part and is not awake, but between feeding and diapering and burping and not liking to sleep in her bassinet and diapering again we are adjusting. The kids have been great this entire time to be helpful and get along... and hold her or hold her little hands whenever possible! Colby LOVES letting her little fingers squeeze around one of his. If she starts to get sad he will ask, "Do you want to hold my finger Allie?"

Thanks so much again for all your prayers and thoughts and calls, emails, meals, texts, visits, etc etc! Sorry if we have yet to respond to you- we are in our own little world here... and enjoying every minute with Allie or catching up throughout the day on missed sleep! More pics coming soon. ;-)