Carter was a little bit worried when she found out the baby came out of my belly, but once she saw her she couldn't wait to hold Avery. Here she is holding Avery at Grandma's house.

Cousins

We had to get a picture of all four cousins while Jessica and Keenan were visiting.
This looks like a lot of trouble in years to come and a lot of fun.

Welcome to the world baby girl

Avery Eileen Gerdes joined the family at 6:38 in the morning on the 3rd of February. It wasn't the most convenient time for her to arrive but she did show up on my Grandma Betty's mom's birthday. She was due on Grandma Pat's birthday so that is kind of fun. Here is her birth story..

I woke up about midnight having some pretty bad contractions, but I kept thinking they would go away as I was up the night before with false labor. Also if I was going in to labor then I had to call Corinne to come and stay with Cade and as it was the middle of the night I didn't want to wake her up for nothing.

Oh did I mention Cade and I were both fighting a pretty bad cold, chest congestion, cough, runny nose, fun stuff. Rance was also feeling pretty under the weather and we were both hoping this would turn out to be false labor also. Not to be! The contractions kept coming closer and closer together. So finally at 2:30 in the morning I decided to call Corinne. She only lives about 5 or so miles away. Before I could call her my mom called and wanted to know if I had had the baby yet. I was like "close mom but did you know it is 2:30 in the morning here?" My parents were on some island vacation.

By the time Rance and I got headed into town my contractions were only three minutes apart. And they were not fun! We got to the hospital and it was forever until they got me hooked up with my epidural around 5. No natural delivery for me thankyou very much! I was hoping to be able to catch a little nap before I had to start pushing. No such luck, I was ready to push by six and Avery showed up 38 minutes later. Seven pounds even and 19 1/4 inches long. She was so beautiful and had a lot of really dark brown hair. I remember what a perfectly round little head she had. Rance went home that night to take care of Cade. I couldn't have any visitors as it was flu and RSV season and my parents were on some island vacation. All I remember about the hospital was I was tired and I wanted to go home.

Cade was pretty excited about his sister and was really excited his mom was home. He had a pretty hard time learning to share his Mom with the baby. He really likes to give Avery kisses though