Our new sweet baby girl is finally here! I am just posting the story quick from an email my mom sent my family, and a few pictures... we think she is the cutest little baby ever!!! :)
Ashley went to the hospital on Wednesday, August 26 at about noon only to discover she was only dilated to 2 so they sent her home disappointed.When I got her phone call I jumped on the first plane I could and arrived just in time to find out she was on her way home. We went out for some spicy Chinese food and walked around the mall. By 9:00pm she was hurting pretty bad. We went home and waited... more contractions... only 4-5 minutes apart. At 11:30pm we went back to the hospital. Unfortunately, after monitoring her for an hour she was still only dilated to a 2! Once again she went home disappointed.
After a pretty sleepless night for everyone her contractions were quite strong. But we didn't want to go to the hospital too soon again. We went for a long walk. Poor Ashley had to stop about every 4 minutes, grab Mike's arm, bend over and almost cry from the pain. But we kept walking. Finally she couldn't stand it anymore. We came home, showered, and now her contractions were just 3 minutes apart and she was in tears.
Back to the hospital… Thursday at 1:00pm in the afternoon. Good news: she was dilated to 4. They admitted her, hooked up her I.V. & epidural, and broke her water.
By 4:00pm we were told she had dilated to 7
By 6:30pm we were told she had dilated to 9 and it was about time to push! We were so excited. At 7:00 a new nurse came on shift, checked Ashley and said “She’s not a 9! She’s only dilated to 6, maybe a 7. I don’t know who told you she was at a 9.”
We were disappointed, devastated… confused. How could that happen? We told the nurse we wanted the doctor to come check her. No offense, but someone was obviously wrong.
7:30 The Doctor came to check and said she was about a 7½ or 8. He said "I’ll be back in about 2 hours to check you again and you’ll probably be ready to push then."
He came back at 9:30 to check and Ashley had not changed. She was still dilated to an 8.
He was concerned that she was “stalled”. You don’t want to be stuck and under the pressure of labor for too long. It’s dangerous for the baby and mother. The doctor said we should consider a C-Section. Ashley was still having lots of hard labor, but it seemed it wasn’t forcing her to dilate anymore. He said we could wait another hour and see if there was a change.
We waited for a little over another hour. Doctor came back and checked again. She hadn’t changed at all. He was very concerned and recommended we do the C-Section.
After lots of serious thought, contemplation, prayer and a sweet blessing from Mike & his Dad they decided to do the C-Section.
At 11:00pm they rolled her away to the O.R. I found the doors to the O.R. and could see part of them through the windows. I watched: as much as I could see anyway. At 11:27pm Halle was born! She was so adorable, despite a serious conehead. “That’s the head of a baby that was really trying to get out!” The doctor said. She was stuck in that canal for 8 hours! That produces quite the conehead. But she was beautiful! Thankfully coneheads go down after just 12 hours.
Ashley and Halle did great. They are doing great. Halle is so sweet and so beautiful. Did I say that already? She is nursing well. Ashley is feeling good. I’m so proud of her. It has been quite an emotional and exhausting 3 days. But we are so thankful that Halle is here and safe and healthy. And we are so thankful Ashley is well and healthy.
Everyone
Oh she is so precious!! She changes so much! Halle has already graduated into size 1 diapers :) and sleeps between 5 and 7 hours straight every night, then feeds for like 40 minutes and goes back to sleep for another 2 hours which has made life so much better! She smiles ALL the time and OOOoooo i just love it so much!!! I feel like a real mommy now with a little buddy who loves me back and really really knows who i am and likes to play! Hopefully i'll get some more smiling pictures soon- she seems to get distracted when i pull the camera out and i can never get the split second right when she's smiling good!
So mike thinks its pretty cool that Halle is so "flexible", SO he loves to put her toe in her mouth because then she sucks on it! It actually is really hilarious! :) I think this is something only a dad would do
Driving the Alpine Loop right as the leaves began to change 
So, if you know my family, you know basketball is life for the boys! So we found this cute tiny shirt that says, "My Grandpa Rocks" that we put Halle in and took some pics with a basketball for her grandpa (and all her uncles and and her great grandpa would appreciate it too)
Napping with Daddy-- SO CUTE!
First Family outing... a drive up to and walking around beautiful Sundance 
James' B-day celebration. Happy Birthday James!! (we had homemade ice cream thats why he's holding a strawberry with his candles :)
Cutest baby girl cousin Claire-- Baby Halle will be getting lots of cute cloths from Claire :) lucky us!!
Mike shooting a hoop across the pool from the slide
The boys getting pretty wild playing 21
Chelsey and I had a joint shower thrown by all the cute girls we work with. We had yummy homemade Cafe Rio salads and we got tons of fun and needed stuff! Thanks to everyone!!
28 Weeks! 
