Amara Danica Leckie!

As I write this I am staring at our little girl who is already 6 weeks old! For the past month and a half this is how we spend the larger part of our days, staring at Amara with wonderment and pride. As expected, parenthood is keeping us pretty busy and we continue to enjoy the bliss of it all.

Amara Danica Leckie was born on October 16, 2010. This is the day we found a new boundless kind of love. Earlier in the week, Georgia & Blair arrived in Vienna in anticipation of their first grandchild. They had a few days to settle in and we had this time to spend with them before officially becoming parents. We talked over meals and walks around the city knowing that anytime we would bring a child into the world and not knowing just how amazing it would be. The night before Amara was born we had a Spanish tapas dinner and went to the famous Sachar Hotel for dessert. There was some anticipation when going to sleep that evening because the next day was my "due date." Sometime after midnight I started feeling what I thought were cramps. Knowing that about five percent of babies are born on their actual due date I didn't want to psych myself out. I tried to sleep through them until about 3:00 when they kept me awake. At 6:00 AM I started timing them and I thought they were too frequent to be contractions. Finally around 7:45 I decided to call my midwife Ulli and let Andrew know that I think something is really happening. Ulli told me to meet her at the hospital in an hour. After packing our things, we walked the 3 blocks to the hospital while I took breathing breaks every two minutes or so. Once there, Ulli found that the baby's heart rate was healthy and that my contractions were constant. At that point she found that I was 7 centimeters dilated. To get to the point, she drew me a bath, called my doctor, and I ended up having a natural water birth 3 1/2 hours later.

Upon first glance, I'm still not sure if it was us or our baby that was more wide-eyed. We were staring at a baby, our baby. After finding that she was a girl, we were still trying to absorb that she was ours. Amara was alert, beautiful, and little. I held our baby girl while Andrew cut the umbilical cord. After the birthing part was said and done we spent time alone in the room as a family. Soon after we had proud Baba Jo and Grandpa Blair meet their grandaughter. Together, we took in what we could of this moment. Amara and I laid together as we admired her perfect little head covered with brown hair, her bright slate-blue eyes, her scrawny arms and legs, and her long fingers nails on her tiny hands. She was born ready to greet us and did not cry until she was taken off my chest about 90 minutes later when we were curious to know her stats. Having to do the metric conversions, Amara was 6.1 pounds, 19 inches, and born at 12:20 PM.

Amara is Greek origin meaning eternal. Danica (Dawn-itz-a) is Slavic meaning morning star.  Danica is a family name on Andrew's side and version of Diana in English, being my mother's name. Now we know it's a beautiful name of our beautiful daughter.

In her six weeks outside the womb, Amara has been loved by the family that has come to visit (Baba JoJo, Grandpa Blair, Tita Marissa, Grandma Diana and Mike), and by those we've talk to and see via Skype. We know that we are by no means the only ones excited about her. She has quite the fan club and it's only a matter of days now until we get to bring her home to be held and loved by the rest of the family and loved ones. Here in Vienna Amara enjoys going on walks, dancing, taking baths, going to Christmas markets, and cuddling with her mom and dad. She is such a sweet girl and is growing quickly. She's a good eater (much like her mom and dad) and is reaching almost 9 pounds now.  Soon we will pack her passport and she will take her first plane ride to Seattle. We are excited to spend Christmas at home and spread holiday cheer with our little bundle of joy.

We should now call this Ciara, Andrew & Amara's Adventures. We believe our most incredible journey has just begun.