Audrey Shea Parrish arrives

It's been a while since our last post, and the birth of our new baby girl seems like a good point to pick it back up. Yesterday, March 10, 2009, at 8:25am, Audrey Shea Parrish was born. She weighed in at 2lbs 13 ozs and was 15-1/2" long. She entered the world 8 weeks before her due date, after what seemed like an eternity of 3 visits per week to the specialist to monitor her progress. We knew she would have to be delivered early, but also knew that she was healthy according to all of the tests. The big question was when, and last Friday our specialist answered that question. He said it was time and we were scheduled for 7:15am on Tuesday morning, March 10. We had to be at the hospital at 5:30am and woke up around 4:15am. Neither DeeDra or I slept well, so the early rising didn't really matter. Everything went smoothly at the hospital, and Audrey came out in much better shape than any of us expected. They estimated she'd weigh 2lbs 5 ozs, but she was more, and they thought she'd need help breathing, but she's been breathing completely on her own for her entire life. She cried right after she was born and with all of our concerns leading up to the birth, I must say that hearing that baby cry was the best sound I've ever heard in my life. She truly is amazing and DeeDra and I are so very grateful that she's doing so well. She is small and will likely be in the NICU for about 6 weeks, but she's got a great start and we feel very fortunate.

Enough of the words. Here are some pictures of our daughter... and one of big brother Wyatt. And, yes, we'll need to change the name of our blog now.