And baby makes three . . .

Sorry for the absence folks . . . but we have a bit of news to share. Last Thursday night (December 30th), Brad and I headed out to the hospital at 8pm for my induction. We were both actually kinda nervous but also super excited. We knew life was about to change big time but had no clue what the next hours and days had in store for us. Before leaving home, I decided to snap one more picture of the belly before the little girl made her appearance:

37 weeks pregnant

We also practiced strapping an unsuspecting teddy bear into Katie's car seat, just to make sure we were prepared:


And we snapped one last picture of our family looking like this:

Brad, Raina and I

Then, on December 31st at 1:53pm, we welcomed Miss Kate Autumn into our world and our hearts. She is 6 pounds, 13 ounces of wonderful. And 19 1/2 inches of beautiful. And she was perfect in every way. Life has been very different since then. And our life and family has been looking more like this:

Katie and Mommy skin-to-skin after giving her her first bath.

Katie and Daddy snuggling at home.

Little Miss Katie in a milk coma in Mommy's arms after a feeding.

My beautiful Kate first thing in the morning. What a wonderful thing to wake up to.

The last week has been so different and so wonderful and every moment has had me counting my blessings in more ways than one. My daughter is the sweetest, prettiest baby I've ever seen (and I've seen quite a few!) and my husband is the most wonderful man and the best father that I could have ever asked for for my child. And our friends and family are the kindest most supportive group of folks I can imagine. I'm an tear-y, sappy mess right now (thanks, hormones!) but I can say without a doubt that I can't imagine life any way other than how it is right now.

Needless to say, I'll be posting less for now. But I promise to post about my birth experience (less than optimal), how my diabetes has been affected post-pregnancy (talk about doing a 180!) and a few other things I meant to post before Miss Kate's arrival that just didn't happen.

Until then, I wanted to wish everyone a very Happy New Year. Now I'm off to snuggle (and feed) the most beautiful little girl in the world.

~Layne, Brad and Katie