She's finally here!

After 36+ hours of contractions every 5-6 minutes, I was admitted to the hospital on Feb. 1st. We were so excited that this was it... finally our little angel was going to enter the world! I was given an epidural and thankfully able to get some sleep. I had been awake for the past 2 nights with contractions, so with some pain relief I went right to sleep, knowing that when I woke up we would be that much closer to meeting our baby. AJ made himself comfortable in the guest bed in our delivery room. We knew we still had a long road ahead with the rest of the labor and delivery. Not soon after we fell asleep, I was awoken to my nurse explaining that the fetal heart rate was slower than they would like. Dr. Martin explained he thought it was necessary to do a c-section and get Ava out as soon as we could. With that we were rolled into the OR, and within 10 minutes, we heard Ava's first cries. Everything was perfect, she was a healthy baby. I will never forget seeing her for the first time when they held her up over the curtain so I could see her. She had great big eyes that were wide open, arms outstretched as far as they would go, and a cry that assured me she had a good set of lungs. She was finally here!