Photo courtesy of my Curtis and Stephanie Whitlock In trying to understand just how tiny Ashleigh is, this really brings it home. Yes, that is my brother’s wedding band on her arm. Her little rib cage makes me want to tickle her ribs, just like my dad liked to do with us, and say “goochy, goochy, goo!” Ah, that will have to wait a few months. Somewhere in the mess of the past week my brother found time to post a blog chronicling the saga up until her birth. Hopefully he will be able to etch out more time for other thoughts, but I suspect that things will be busy…

All I’ve done is keep staring at the photos of Ashleigh. It’s surreal to call my mom up and hear Zoe talking and carrying on in the background. And then there’s 10 and 3/4″ long Ashleigh. The whole thing is magical in a way. She’s here, she’s alive and as tiny as she may be, she’s already a fighter. I already envision her sitting in her room with her big sis, playing dress up or house and then getting into some sort of mischief. I get to meet Ashleigh in about three weeks for an already planned visit at home. Until then I am looking at photos and calling in…

Just quick update and I will write more later, but my brother has some photos up on his Flickr here. Check out the one with his hand at her feet—that gives you some scale! A teeny, tiny little blessing—she’s going to be an astronaut…or maybe President. 😉

Ashleigh Ryon has arrived….3 months early but she’s doing good so far. Mom and baby made it through everything well. I got to see a text message photo of her—tiny but she looks like Zoe! My brother is going to put a post up with photos and video later tonight so I will link to that when he does. Until then, they still need thoughts and prayers—they have at least two months of NICU time ahead of them.