Avery Abelle

After nearly 41 weeks of growing in preparation for the world, Avery was ready. On September 9th, Kelsey and I walked to Subway for dinner and then came back and played some Wii. About this time, the contractions started, but we didn't think too much of it, because it was about the gazillionth time Kelsey had experienced contractions. Three hours later, we started taking it a bit more seriously. We left for the hospital around 2:30am, and after Kelsey's epidural, we actually got a short bit of sleep. Around 9:15, Kelsey started pushing and at 9:44am Avery arrived! These first 4 pictures were taken during her first 5 minutes.

Check out that beautiful new mom! After delivery, we all stayed in the hospital for 2 more nights. We enjoyed some postpartum Papa John's delivered right to our room, Kelsey drank about 2 gallons of water per day, and Kevin was so tired that he slept soundly on his pull-out couch. Kelsey was just as tired, but she was more attuned to Avery's cries, so I'm not so sure she slept as well...

Avery is a very energetic girl. She is also very strong and stubborn. She is almost always wriggling around, flailing her limbs in every direction. From Day 1, she was able to hold her head up without any support. She likes to fight sleep, she loves being held, she loves her books, and she loves music - she gets mad when we take either of the latter two away.

Happy baby, angry baby, sleepy baby - Avery rotates quickly between the three personas, and often in that order. Hungry baby also shows up often, scattered among the three!

Avery was about 2 weeks old when we brought her along to Afton Apple Orchard. She liked picking raspberries a lot more than picking apples - probably because the breeze made it feel much cooler around the raspberries.

Our beautiful little girl.