{weekly update} week one

I can't believe that it's already been one week since our little girl was born!! Granted it was a busy week waiting for papers and the "go ahead" toast the 6 hour trek home. We are so blessed and are having the best time learning our new roles as parents.

our first picture of her 

Weight: at birth 7 pounds. At discharge 6 pounds 10 ounces ( only a 5% decrease). And at her one week check up today 7 pounds 1 ounce!!

Sleep: lots. Close to 19 or 20 hours for this growing babe. 

Clothes: newborn, well only from certain brands as they range in size. But she doesn't fit into the footed ones they are way TOO big and her feet come out an up into her stomach so she has these dangling legs, haha. 

Visitors: from her birth side; mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, brother, aunt, and cousin. From our family; my aunt and uncle and cousins that live in Spokane. Once we got home we were welcomed by the hubs family; mom, dad, brothers (uncles), sister in law ( aunt), cousins, and  grandma (great grandma). Also she had met my sister and her husband.

Diet: similac formula.   Anywhere from 1 1/4 ounces to 2 ounces a feeding every 2 1/2 to 3 hours.  

Crying: when she is hungry. But it's really non existent at this point. Hopefully that is a trend that continues. 

Baby Gear Love: dr. browns glass bottles, swaddle blankets/baby blankets, and her carseat. 

Milestones: leaving the hospital for my aunts house 2 days after birth. First shopping trip to Target.  Getting the call on Friday that we are good to go home and finally arriving home on Saturday 4 days after birth!!  Riding in a car for 6 hours. And meeting all her pets. 

We absolutely love this little girl and are so proud that we were chosen to be her parents!!

♥ Ashley

She IS Here!!!

OMG OMG OMG she is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen (and I would be totally honest if she wasn't). I love her so much already. We jus hope that everything goes smoothly and we get to keep her.

Our daughter was born on Tuesday May 21st at 1:03 in the afternoon via c-section. She was 7 lbs and 19" long and a total bundle of joy. Well actually she was crying like crazy. 

Lets get to the story. We arrived in Spokane on Monday evening and went to stay at my aunts home. We did not need to be at the hospital until 10:15am so we had some time to spare when we got up. We had our coffee. I ate a banana and then we got our act together and left the house with plenty of time to get to the hospital on time. We decided that we were hungry so we stopped at McDonald's on the way (don't judge). The drive through was super busy so we thought it would be faster to go inside. I think that it was the cashiers first day and she had the hardest time with our order "2 sausage muffins and 1 hashbrown" finally about 20 minutes later we got our order and were back on the road. I started to get excited so we turned up macklemore and had a little dance party. 

We arrived at the hospital with like 1 minute to spare.  We still got there before the birth parents so that was good. We waited in the waiting room and then I got to go back to the prep/recovery room and visit with the birth mom for a little while. Only one person is allowed back there so I went back to the waiting room so the birth dad could go wait with her. 

While we were waiting the nurse came and told us that we were going to get our own room that the baby would be assigned to!!!! Yes I didn't have to sleep on a couch!  So we went back and got settled in. 

Then all of a sudden we heard her.  Our baby she was crying and being carried down the hall for the OR. I am sure I was super annoying to the nurse because most moms are recovering in the bed when they do all the measurements and footprints and what not but I kept hitting her elbows taking pictures. I apologized but continued to get in the way!!

Finally I got to hold her. It was an experience that no words can express. How lucky we are to be blessed by God for this beautiful baby. We were chosen for her to raise her and to have her be our daughter. Our dream had finally been realized and the whole purpose for this blog arrived. 

Thanks be to God for our family!!

She has the chubbiest little cheeks and I love her. 

♥ Ashley

Nursery so far...

We are getting closer to bringing our baby home!!

So some work has been done on the nursery. I wanted to share a little of what she will be coming home to. A full nursery  tour will come after we are home and have gotten a few more things. 

I got inspired from Pinterest and wanted to add some poms above the crib. 

This is what her view will look like. I think I still need to add a few more green ones. And maybe another silver one?

The changing table/dresser was in my childhood room. I just updated it with some grey paint. I still want to change out the knobs, but this works for now. 

♥ Ashley

She is almost here!!

I am overwhelmed with excitement and anxiety at the thought of meeting and bringing home our precious little girl. I have had a migraine for 8 days straight. We leave on Monday after work to go to the hospital. Did I tell you we get to be there when she is born??? I mean we don't get to be in the OR but at the hospital. (When we were at our orientation seminar one of the adoptive couples were from out of town and were fortunate enough to get their own hospital room!!  I sure hope that happens to us! Prayers and fingers crossed)

Then I am not really sure what the plan is. If we don't get our own room I will probably sleep at the hospital if the birth mom wants me too. And I don't know when we will get to take the baby home. Hopefully we will get to bring her home by Memorial Day. 

We also have to pick out a name. I think we are going to try and see if we can't all agree on a name. Otherwise we might just let the birth mom pick out the middle name - as long as it flows together nicely!

I sure hope my migraine goes away so that I can enjoy meeting our little girl!!

♥ Ashley

It's Spring!

The weather has been gorgeous here in the PNW. We have been working hard on getting our vegetable garden started.

Lots of improvements have been happening here and we are on a self imposed deadline to get our "to do" list completed since we have been chosen for a baby that we will be picking up in the near future!!

We reorganized our vegetable garden and split it up into sections using some bricks we had laying around our property (courtesy of the previous owners). Tilled the garden and added some more dirt. All of our cool crop vegetables have been planted: peas, lettuce, kale, broccoli, cabbage, and Swiss chard. We are also trying out an artichoke again.

I have also had the opportunity to have our own homegrown flowers cut and brought into the house to enjoy. Flowers such as tulips, daffodils, lilac, and anemones.

I love spring and how the world is coming out of hiding and all the trees are coming back to life and the beautiful flowers are showing up.

Our flower garden is doing wonderfully. Although the weeding was atrocious this year. I filled up at least 2 yard waste containers and still have more to do. But most of my peony plants actually have buds in them that are growing everyday and I am pretty sure that they will finally bloom this year. (4 years later).

How is your garden? What are you growing this year?

♥ Ashley