welcoming peyton reese johnson!

on april fourth, two thousand eleven, josh and i were blessed with our precious little miracle, peyton reese.

the day was nothing less than thrilling. it was long, and yes, parts of it were painful and uncomfortable, but i wouldn't trade any of it, as we got to meet our beautiful baby girl when all was said and done.

this was our day, in bulletpoints.
* admitted to the hospital for an induction early in the morning
* managed about 2 hours of contractions without an epidural, then "gave in"... (best decision of my life, btw...)
* had about a thousand and seven visitors (which we LOVED, although entertaining was not easy for me, but everyone seemed to entertain each other quite well!!)
* ate ice for breakfast, lunch, and dinner
* the nurses must've liked me because they snuck me a blue popsicle. HIGHLIGHT OF MY DAY :-)
* watched josh tweet every hour
* made "progress", then didn't make "progress", then made LOTS of "progress" and all of the sudden it was TIME TO PUSH!
* pushed for about an hour
* drove our anxious family and friends nuts as they waited outside for the "big news"
* at 9:50pm, josh grinned and said "IT'S A GIRL!!!" (which we totally weren't expecting...but what an amazing surprise, and just about the greatest thing everrrr!)
* at 9:51pm, fell in love like never before... my heart just hurt.

peyton reese, at 7 pounds, 13 ounces, and 20 and a half inches, was immediately cared for by the NICU team as she was born with meconium in her lungs. as they worked to stimulate her and suction her lungs, we waited a very long, and very quiet 20 minutes before getting to meet her, hold her, and be assured she was okay. it was tough, but josh and the doctors were all handling things so well and so calmly that i had no choice but to stay calm and trust that everything would be alright. and our strong little girl was a total trooper and made it through okay. thank the Lord!

I WANT SO BADLY TO SHARE THE FEELINGS I FELT ON THAT DAY, BUT I CAN'T PUT THEM INTO WORDS. of course, seeing our baby girl for the very first time was the most amazing experience ever, but it was also SO MUCH MORE than that. i want nothing bad to happen to her, ever. i don't even like hearing her cry, struggle or fuss, not even for a minute. i want her to be more than happy and joyful every second of every day. and i want her to know how much she is loved by her parents, and by all the wonderful people in our lives. i am beginning to understand the love of a parent, and it truly is indescribable and like no other love...

josh and i are thrilled to have baby girl peyton in our lives. forgive us if we can't express our love for her in our blog. but know that we are spending every minute showing our love to our baby girl. and we hope our friends and family get tons of opportunities to love her, too!