Craig and I could not be more thrilled to announce the arrival of our precious baby girl, Leighton Lane Hayes! She arrived just under 5 hours past her due date at 4:53am on Thursday, September 10, 2015. She weighed 7 lbs 6.9 oz and measured 19 3/4″ long and has Auburn colored hair, which we were a bit surprised by!

I started having contractions on Wednesday, 9/9 (our due date), and after a couple calls with the on-call doctor, we headed to the hospital that night and were admitted at 10:30pm. Things progressed much more quickly than I thought would have been the case with our first baby, and by 2am, I was more than in need of an epidural for the pain. That process was much less excruciating that I had anticipated, but that also may have been because I knew it would bring some relief from the pain I was in every couple minutes with contractions. Oh man, labor pains are like nothing I’ve ever felt before! I told Craig and my mom that whoever invented the epidural is now one of my favorite people — I don’t know how I would have made it through delivery without it. After just 1 hour and 23 minutes of pushing, Dr. Taylor delivered our healthy little girl and I’d say it was the single most amazing, surreal moment of both of our lives.

It’s amazing how naturally little Miss Leighton has become a part of our family. In some ways, I feel like we’ve had her forever, because I can’t imagine our lives without her now. Coco has been adjusting well and enjoys sniffing and licking everything Leighton touches. I see a good bit of Craig in her coloring and features, and I can’t wait to see if her hair stays that pretty Auburn color or if her eyes turn brown like mine did.

We’re getting the hang of life with our new addition, and while we’ve never been so exhausted in our lives, we also feel so incredibly thankful and honored to have been chosen to be this little one’s parents. She truly is God’s perfect gift to us!

[preparing for go-time]

[baby girl has arrived!!]

[proud daddy and his girl]

[one of our first family photos]

[aunt Lauren + uncle Andrew meet their niece]

[grandma and grandpa Sims with their first grandchild]

[headed home!!]

[grandma and grandpa Hayes – also with their first grandchild]

[Coco meets her sister]