Haley is born!

Our beautiful new addition surprised us by making her appearance on Valentine's Day. The backstory:

Haley's due date was Feb. 25. Robb was making his first business trip ever to Orlando from Feb. 10-13. While he was gone, I started feeling more frequent but painless contractions. Luckily, Robb returned home without event and we made plans for the weekend to pack for the hospital and do last-minute prep for baby.

I had my last day of work on Feb. 14. (I hadn't worked earlier that week since I'm part-time.) I began to wonder whether I would be okay working that day, but decided to do it since my long-term sub would be there with me. It became clear as I was teaching that day that I should probably head home early; my contractions didn't hurt but were getting stronger. 

I left work at 2:00 and called Robb to come home from work also. We both quickly packed for the hospital and had a quick Valentine's celebration with Riley. My parents came over to watch her, and we headed to the hospital.

As my doctor predicted, the labor progressed quickly. We checked in at 4:30 pm. The epidural only worked from the pelvis down, and the anesthesiologist couldn't figure out why. Rather than have him reposition it, I decided to labor through the rest of the contractions (I could tell I was close.) That part wasn't fun, but luckily I couldn't feel the pain once it was time to push. Haley May Holmstrom was born at 8:22 pm, 11 days early.

And now, the pics ...