Audrey is here!

I promised more pictures of Audrey and the birth experience. Here they are ~ Enjoy! Click for big versions.

Here I am moments before getting hooked up to the IV and going into surgery. I think I look bigger than 37 weeks... would you agree? :p

Getting cleaned up. C Section babies sometimes stop breathing shortly after birth, because their lungs/heart etc. haven't been stimulated by being pushed through the birth canal. Such was the case with Audrey... they had to drain her lungs and stimulate them as she stopped breathing for about 15 seconds. Scary!! Thank the Lord I had no clue that was happening as I watched, immobilized on the operating table.

Get that bright light out of my face, people!

Note the amount on the scale. That's my big girl! :D

A very very happy Daddy!

One big happy family. I'm pretty drugged out in this picture. :p

Dave, Katie, and many of our friends came to visit us while in the hospital. Dave wanted to hold Audrey all day, and she loved it!

A happy and tired momma.

Audrey in her going home outfit on our last day at the hospital. She's just so cute I could scream!!

At one point, she reached out, grabbed Eric's nose, and held on for about 5 minutes. I could hardly take the picture because I was laughing so hard! I thought I would lose my stitches...

Folks, we've got a whistler.


We introduced Gabby & Sasha to Audrey the night we returned home. They were absolutely fascinated with her, and still are!

Audrey's first sponge bath. She LOVED it as you can see! :p

Ahh... now this I can deal with.

I'm ready... feed meh!

Eric has become quite the multi tasker... watching TV and feeding Audrey at the same time.

Audrey stretched her legs out and set them on Sasha's nose. It was possibly the cutest thing ever.

Her first walk outside... she slept through the whole thing, bumps and all!


We're picture-happy-parents, so expect a lot more pictures soon! :)

Miss Audrey has arrived!

After much anticipation, our beautiful little girl is here. Audrey Ann Rice was born at 10:03am on Friday, April 4th. She weighed 9 lbs. 1 oz., and was 20 inches long. The C-Section was smooth, quick, and a great experience overall. I am recovering quite well, but I still have some pain and am taking things slowly. We've have had a fun and tiring week... taking care of a newborn is something else! We are completely in love with her and couldn't possibly be happier. More rested, sure... but not happier! :D

I have started a long post filled with pictures and details of the whole birth experience. I will pack as many pictures of our beautiful little girl into one post as I can! However, I'm too exhausted to do this tonight. I'll add a few pictures now to hold you over, since I know some of you may be checking my blog for news of the most beautiful baby in the world!





More to come. I hope to have an extensively detailed post for you tomorrow.

Only in Ohio

A few days ago, I picked Eric up from work and we were on the freeway driving home. Eric hadn't had a particularly encouraging day at work, so we were talking about it and feeling a little glum in general. I was focusing on the road as any decent driver tends to do, when suddenly Eric erupted in laughter, shrieking about something or other I couldn't quite catch. He insisted that I slow down in order to get a look at a truck that we had recently passed, because it had a COW in the backseat. You read it right, I said COW. If the cow was in the BED of the truck I wouldn't have bothered, but he said he thought for sure he saw a cow in the extra cab of an old F150. When we passed it the first time, he thought the truck had some fancy leather seat covers. As he looked closer, he realized the leather seat cover had a tail. And a bell around it's neck. And a tag in it's ear. By no means were we in the middle of a rural country town, but smack dab in the middle of a major metropolitan city! What did I say? Only in Ohio.

Eric snapped a picture with his cell phone as we drove by.


Take a closer look:


It seems that Bessie has moved up in the world. Only in Ohio. :) That brightened Eric's day considerably, and we both had a good laugh!