reliving the past 12 months

so avery's birthday is quickly approaching and i can't believe it! i'm been thinking about her birthday party for the past 6 months and i feel like i blinked and now it's here and i have so much to do! in trying to think of things to do and decorate i had the idea to print pictures month by month. it is fun going through them and remembering all the different milestones and things that have happened over the past 12 months. so, i'm going to try and remember and share a story from each month. so, today i'm starting with her arrival.

avery's due date was june 14th. the doctor called the wednesday before and said if she doesn't come by then we are scheduling your induction for june 16th. i remember getting the call while in a co-workers office. that is when it hit me. holy crap, i'm really going to have a baby. i was so excited thinking in less than a week i was going to meet avery. i imagined the day for 9 months now and couldn't wait. but, then i started wondering why they were going to induce me only 2 days after my due date. after talking to the doctor they told me that i was "small" and that a 5.5 or 6 pound baby would be perfect and maybe all i could handle if i wanted to have her naturally (with drugs of course). we went back to the dr. the day before the scheduled induction and really talked about it. they gave us the decision to move forward or cancel and reschedule for the following monday. we were so torn. we went to a chinese restaurant that night and i ordered the spiciest dish on the menu. i ate a million of those little red hot peppers and almost burned my mouth off hoping to induce labor. i was in tears at dinner because i didn't know what to do. i wanted to meet avery so bad and was so over being pregnant but i didn't want to force her out before she was ready. i finally decided to cancel the induction. this was the first major decision we made for avery's life. she came out at 3:24am the following monday. she came on her own and was beautiful and healthy. as she gets older i hope i am able to put her first and she always does things when she is ready and not because someone is telling her otherwise (that's not to say i didn't walk for hours everyday and eat pineapple and spicy foods to try and force her out). those 8 days felt like months and the anticipation grew. i'm still proud of our decision and standing up for avery.

haha! 16 weeks and i thought i had a belly!

let's not forget when my friends painted my belly!

ah! 5 days overdue hiking an hour away from denver trying to see if she would come out!

the most beautiful baby i have ever seen!