Blakely's Entrance and First Week at Home

My sweet baby girl has been here for 10 days and Kevin and I feel so blessed! She is absolutely the joy of my life and I truly believe that the love a parent has for his/her child is one of the greatest loves that can exist on earth.
Blakely is such an easy going baby, much like she was for the nine months she was developing. In fact, her easy going nature was what got her here 9 days early. There were many times during my pregnancy that I did not feel her move and it worried me tremendously. However, every time I went to the doctor, her heartbeat was strong and the doctor told me not to worry.
On Friday night June 3, some pre-labor stuff started happening. I went and got my What to Expect book but it said unless my water had broken or I was having contractions, it could still be up to a week before the baby could arrive. I went to bed and thought nothing more of it.

The next morning, I went to breakfast with Kevin's family and told his mom about it. She told me to call the doctor and inform her of what happened. Being that it was the weekend, I got the on-call doctor who said the stuff I had experienced was normal and then asked how much I was feeling the baby move. I explained that she rarely ever moved and that worried her and she asked me to come to the hospital so she could monitor the fetal movement.
I went home and told Kevin that I was going to the hospital for just a little while and told him he didn't need to come with me. I drove myself 45 minutes to the hospital, where they hooked me up to the fetal monitor. Although her heartbeat was strong, there was very little movement for 3 hours and the doctor got worried. She told me that she felt uncomfortable sending me home so they were going to induce me. I was so excited because I was ready to meet my girl and I called to tell Kevin, who was already half-way to the hospital.

Four generations of Anne. (Grandmother Stephanie Anne, Lori Anne, Blakely Anne, and great-grandmother Anne)

Nap time with daddy!

I was induced at 2:30pm and began to progress very rapidly. I got an epidural fairly quickly and enjoyed it very much! Kevin and I had a great time cutting up and just enjoying the experience for the next several hours. By 9:00pm I was fully dilated but waited until 10:15 to start pushing because they wanted the baby to work her way down a little bit more. Because the epidural was working so well, I didn't feel anything and thoroughly enjoyed the entire experience. Blakely made her entrance into the world at 10:50pm on Saturday, June 4.
 
When she came out, the doctor said, "Wow, what a big baby. No wonder there was no movement. She had no where to move." She weighed 9 pounds even and I wonder what she would have weighed if she had gone full term.
Her first week at home has been wonderful and being her mom is such a joy!! I love my little girl more and more every day.