Hello world, meet Ava Lucille

After 41 weeks and one day in the making (and 16 hours of labor), our daughter Ava Lucille Bachhuber finally joined Leah and I on Monday at 4:01 pm. She’s beautiful, happy, healthy, and such a cute darling.

Aside from what you’d expect — long nights, taking on the doula responsibility to support Leah and Ava — I’ve had two pleasant surprises so far:

1. Home births are underrated, magical experiences for the birth partner. I consider myself very fortunate to have helped support Leah every step of the way, and to have gotten skin time with Ava just after her.
2. My sense of responsibility has increased a hundredfold. It’s amazing how your priorities can shift in a heartbeat.

Looking forward to many more pleasant surprises on this journey.