Carter Ayden!

Dane called this his Jesus pose - he doesn't like to have his arms confined

A little burrito baby

Showing off his faux hawk

Just born and not so happy...

The last picture of the belly at 39 weeks - I was happy to see it go!!!

He's finally here!!! On June 11th at 8:38 a.m. Carter Ayden Huffman made his appearance into the world. On the 10th we had a routine doctor's appointment and at that time she said much hadn't changed in the last couple of weeks, but that I could be ready to go at any time. We decided that we would come in the night of the 15th to be induced if he didn't decide to come on his own sooner. After the doctor's appointment we headed home and made plans for that weekend since we thought it would be our last weekend without a baby. We planned on finishing up the last few things we needed to do and thought we'd go to a movie and dinner sometime. After we talked about that Dane and Leanne decided they felt like heading over to the driving range to hit some golf balls. I thought I'd go along so I could go on a walk and sit and watch them. As we were walking back from the driving range my water broke. I told Dane that either something was happening or I had peed my pants, but that I was pretty sure I hadn't peed. I knew my water had broken though. We made it home and called the doctor and she told us to come on in. We got to the hospital around 9 p.m. and got settled into our room. We made a few laps around the birthing center as I began to have contractions. After a couple hours I got an epidural and we tried to relax and rest. We slept a little bit, but the nurse was coming in about every half hour so we didn't get too much sleep. Around 2 a.m. she gave me some pitocin to help make the contractions stronger and to help move things along. Around 5:30 a.m. they decided I was ready to start pushing. I began pushing and everything was going pretty well. After about an hour and half my epidural started to wear off and I was beginning to really feel the contractions. At that point I was really tired from pushing for 90 minutes and was beginning to be in pain. We decided to take a break and they came in and gave me more of the epidural. After about a half hours rest we started to push again around 7:30 a.m. About an hour later Carter arrived! He weighed 7 pounds, 8 ounces and was 20 inches long. He came out with a ton of hair too! We spent the next couple of days in the hospital recuperating and making sure the baby and I were both in good shape. On Saturday morning we headed home.

He's now a week old and is doing great. We're adjusting to our new lifestyle and schedule and learning to live without too much sleep. He does sleep for 2-3 hour blocks so we get some sleep in - just not like we were used to! Leanne and Kristen have both been here to help out and took some Auntie night shifts so Dane and I could get some solid sleep for a couple hours. It's been so fun to finally have him here and in our lives. He's so cute and Dane and I are both so in love with him. We're starting to learn his little quirks and getting this whole baby thing figured out - well at least a little bit. The thing I've been the most surprised about is how many clothes and blankets he manages to go through in a day. Our washing machine has pretty much been constantly running since we got home. We're just so happy he's finally here, healthy and happy (well at least most of the time). He's also quite the eater and on Wednesday at 6 days old he already weighed 8 pounds, 3 ounces. We were at the doctor's on Monday and then had to go back for a quick check on Wednesday and within 48 hours he had gained 6 ounces. The nurse told me they typically want babies to gain a half ounce to one ounce a day and that they get back to their birth weight by 2 weeks. He already exceeded his birth weight after a few days and managed to gain 6 ounces in a couple of days so we definitely don't have to worry about him eating enough. I was a fat baby who ate a ton so my mom says it is payback. We can't wait to watch him grow and learn and are just so happy to have him!!!