Welcome Home Addison!

Well the day finally came! I was convinced it wouldn't but sure enough we evicted lil miss Addibell yesterday, May 28, 2009. And after seeing just how adorable and precious she is I quickly forgave her for staying in my belly longer than she should have. She was born at 8:15 pm and weighed 8 lbs 8 oz and 21 1/2 inches long. Surprisingly she didn't take too long to join us. We headed to the hospital at 9:30 am for our induction and got things moving right along by 11:30 am. We made just a little headway from 11:30 to 7:00 pm, then I was ready and willing to get the epidural. Once I got that and had them break my water, I went from a 4 to a 9 1/2 in 1 hour. Even the epidural couldn't numb all the pressure that I went through.....it was one long hour! But I was thrilled to know that we were that much closer to meeting our little girl finally. 45 minutes of pushing and she had arrived. It was such a surreal feeling to finally have them place her on my stomach. John and I definitely got caught up in the emotions of being first-time parents. We are just so in love with her and can't stop staring, holding, squeezing, and kissing her. Luckily the "Hufford DNA" didn't dominate and she did manage to get a few of my features as well. She has my nose (aka the famous "Bell nose") and definitely has John's abundance of hair - just like he had when he was a little baby. John even joked after she was born that it's so long we are going to give her a permanent on our way home. She is a darling bundle of joy and has passed all of her testing and screenings with flying colors - a HUGE relief for me! We are all running on adrenaline at this point but wouldn't have it any other way. She was worth all the lack of sleep we endured. We are anxious to get to spend the rest of our lives as her parents.

My sister-in-law Sarah was our wonderful doula for our birth. Not only did she give us great instruction on pain management and all the little reassurances to calm our fears, and answer our questions, she also made us a beautiful video of Addison's first moments. She is a great photographer and definitely shows her skills in the below video. Enjoy!