Hello all! I’m back for a brief blog post to officially introduce our new daughter, Adeline Pearl Dunlap. Born on August 7 at 1:29AM, weighing 7 pounds 3 ounces, 20 1/4 inches long, with a full head of hair! We have never felt so much love for something in our lives. In some ways it feels like our life has changed so much in the last 11 days, and in others it feels like she’s always been part of it. Driving home from the hospital with her Kyle and I were talking about how everything before her almost seems insignificant. It’s beautiful how quickly this little girl stole our hearts. I look at her often and start crying happy tears because I love her so much. Even now as I write this, I can’t help but tear up. She completes us in a way we never knew was possible.

Parenthood has been good to us so far. She’s a sweet little girl! She sleeps well, eats well, and rarely cries unless she’s hungry or has a wet diaper. She’s in her crib already, and seems to love it! We sure are loving her sound machine! We’re sleeping like babies with that thing on, haha! She’s also content to sit and take in her new world on the outside all by herself, when we let her. It’s hard to put something so cute down : ) People keep asking us how the dogs are adjusting to her. It took them a little while, but they’re finally getting used to her. Baxter would leave the room every time she cried for the first few days, and Allie seemed ambivalent to her at first. Now whenever people come to visit, they stay close to her side. Even to the point of laying at the feet of whoever’s holding her. I guess they know she’s theirs to protect. They still don’t really snuggle or lick her (unless we force them), but I’m hoping that will come with time.

We’ve had a lot of people ask about where her name came from and how to pronounce it. We know she’ll get that a lot throughout life, but both of us had to correct our names (me being A.J. and Kyle going by his middle name), and since neither of us really minded it, we are hoping she doesn’t either. Adeline is pronounced ad-uh-line (not lynn). We came up with that, because we really wanted to call her Ada, but wanted her to have a formal name. I love nicknames, and since there was really no where to go from Ada, we decided to lengthen it. Plus we just thought Adeline was so pretty, and using that for another daughter when one’s already named Ada wouldn’t exactly be fair : ) And Pearl is our birthstone. One of our favorite relationship facts about us is that our birthdays are one day apart. It only seemed fitting to include that in her name.

The other question we get a lot is how was labor. It really wasn’t all the bad. I did get an epidural, which definitely helped with the contraction pain, but the rest wasn’t awful. They induced me at 10:30AM, I progressed nicely, and then had to push for 2 1/2 hours. Which sounds like a lot, but really when you’re not feeling the pain, you don’t think about it. They did give me a drug before the epidural that made the room spin and made me nauseous, which was awful. Other than that though it was a great experience! When she finally did arrive, they placed her on my chest, and I immediately started crying. It was so amazing to see her in person finally! Kyle gave her tons of kisses, and we reveled in the fact that we were new parents. He was amazing through the whole process. He took such great care of me, and had settled into being a dad so naturally. Not that I had any doubts. Seeing him with her is as special and beautiful as I expected it to be. I love him more now than I ever have.

Now that we’re home, we’re working on our routine. Having a baby takes up a lot of time. I’ve never done more laundry, dishes, slept less, and been more emotional in my life. But it’s all worth it when I look into her little eyes and fall in love with her all over again. As of today, I’m back to answering emails and voicemails, but will still be taking a break from the blog for a few more weeks while we continue adjusting. We’re posting a few new photos here and there on Instagram, but honestly we’ve been taking a lot with our real cameras! We’ve been keeping one on each floor and anytime something cute happens, we’re grabbing that instead of our phones. I love that though, because memories shouldn’t just be documented through a phone. We’re actually getting high quality photos of her that we can use down the road instead of just showing off on a 2 x 3 inch screen : ) I promise to share more of her on here later once we’re back to blogging again!

We do want to thank you all for your patience with us during this time, and for all the love and support. We’ve read every single one of your comments, and have felt so incredibly blessed by your words! I can’t begin to describe how loved you have all made us feel! I’m off for now to go snuggle my baby : ) See you again in a few weeks!