meghan-vail-photography_2058

From the Mouth Of Mom

When we discovered we were having a girl the names we considered were: Arlen, Annabelle, and Caroline. My mother in law came up with Arlen by removing the first and last letter from my name- mARLENa. I have no idea how she came up with that, but we both liked the unique quality of the name and it stuck almost immediately.

Annabelle was the other big contender but both sides of the extended family seemed to like Arlen better which made the decision easy! Arlen’s middle name is Raye- which is named after my late paternal grandmother. She was due on my grandmothers birthday!meghan-vail-photography_2059meghan-vail-photography_2060Like most mothers, I thought or hoped the baby would arrive early.  At 41 weeks my body was still no where near ready to deliver this baby! The doctor scheduled me for induction.

From the time of hospital admission to the time of delivery it was 48 hours.   A very long process to say the least, and the term labor is definitely an understatement! Fortunately, the actual delivery went very well and dad was excited that he got to participate!

My mom and mother in law were also in the delivery room and everyone was full of emotions after watching the miracle of childbirth!Newborn Girl Studio PhotosBaby Girl in a BasketArlen was born with a full head of hair.  We still can’t tell if her hair will be straight like Mom’s or curly like Dad’s. Her eyes were wide open immediately after birth. When they placed her on Mom’s tummy, Arlen turned her head to make eye contact with Mommy!  There was a connection from the very beginning.

We were all amazed by how long her fingers, feet, and toes were!Baby Girl with Flower Accessories