Ava has arrived!!!

Ava Maxine Veldman arrived on Thursday Feb. 25th at 5:22 pm. She weighed in at 8 lbs 5 oz and was 21 inches long. Her mommy and daddy think that she is the most beautiful thing in the world. We're not sure where she got all that dark hair from, but she does have both of the Grandpas' hairline. :) As for her name, Ava is just a name that Nate and I agreed on. Maxine was Grandma Hinds' first name (Nate's Grandma). Grandma passed away a year and half ago. She was an amazingly kind and generous woman. We know that she is smiling down on us, and we are honored to have Ava share her name.

The excitement of labor began when my water broke on Thursday morning around 7:45. Luckly Nate doesn't go to work until later on Thursdays so he was still home. We were to the hospital by 9:45. After being checked in, and they confirmed that my water really did break (there was NO doubt in my mind) they settled us into the labor and delivery room. I had wanted to walk for awhile, as I was still feeling pretty good. Well my walk lasted about 15 minutes and then BAM, the "real contractions" hit and they were coming every 1-2 minutes. The next hour or so was quite miserable, I'm not sure how people do that natural childbirth thing for hours on end! Once the epidural was in I was much more comfortable (as was Nate, he was feeling pretty helpless). Within a few hours I was fully dilated and decided to wait another hour for her to come down on her own since I wasn't in intense pain. Once the back pain became pretty intense it was time to push. We had a wonderful resident, physician, and nurse present during the delivery and I couldn't have imagined that it would go so smoothly. Before we knew it we were holding our little angel!

Her arrival was much anticipated. Uncle Wes, Grandma Becker, and Grandma and Grandpa Veldman came to see her on the night of her arrival. There were lots of phone calls to share our good news. We came home on Sat. and were greeted by Grandma and Grandpa Becker, Lisa, Brent, and Reece, Great Grandma Schutterle, Aunt Darlene, Aunt Marylin, Melissa, Kristin, and Carl. They brought food and of course lots of pink clothes!!! :) Thank you all so much for making the long trip up from Iowa for such a short period of time. We love you very much and were so glad that you got to meet Ava. Grandma and Grandpa Becker spent the night last night (Lisa, Brent, and Reece stayed at Grandma and Grandpa Veldman's). They took the monitor so that we could get some sleep. We are very thankful, as Miss Ava was up almost on the hour. Why you ask, oh because she's a little bit of a princess and loves to be held. So thank you for waking up hourly to hold her so that we could sleep.

We want to thank everybody for their kind messages, thoughts, and prayers. We can't wait to introduce you all to Ava. Below are some pictures of our first 2 days. I'll post more very soon. Thanks for checking in!