The Birth Story

I've had a request for Rose's birth story, and I figured all my female readers will enjoy it. Male readers (all 2 of you :), I will not be offended if you skip this one!

When people ask me how long I was in labor, it's hard for me to give an answer. With all of the kids, I've had pretty good braxton hicks contractions for about 2 weeks beforehand. With Rose especially, there were several nights where I was sure I was in labor, only to have it die away after several hours. So sometimes I want to say "4 days," but that's kind of a confusing answer. The night that I truly went into labor, David had stayed up late working on his lecture for the next day (which, it turns out, he wasn't going to need). He came to bed at 1:30, and about that time I woke up with regular contractions. After sitting downstairs for about a half hour, I decided that I wanted to walk around the neighborhood to distract myself. I knew he wouldn't be happy about me going by myself in the middle of the night, and I knew that he had just gone to bed, so it took me a little while to decide if I really wanted to go wake him up and ask him to go with me. When I did finally decide that I wanted to wake him up, he'd been asleep about an hour. As I woke him up and told him what I wanted to do, I could see the disbelief on his face--it was actually funny except that I felt so bad for him. He was a good sport, though, and got all dressed, put his contacts back in, and came downstairs to help me. We walked for about a half hour and the contractions were getting more painful, so we came back. We decided to go ahead and call the midwife and go to the hospital, because I hate going when the contractions are at their worst. All the commotion had awakened my mom, so I went and told her we were leaving. We got to the hospital at 4, after driving through road bumpy road construction to get there. I still didn't feel like they were that bad and was happy we had come earlier rather than later. As they showed us to our room, I saw another laboring mom walking the hallways, looking miserable, and was grateful that I wasn't feeling like that yet. We got settled in the hospital room and the nurse started check-in procedure. She asked me how bad the pain was, on a scale of 1 to 10, and I told her about an 8. My midwife arrived, got her scrubs on, and checked me. To my shock, I was at 9 and in transition. The nurses scrambled around for a few minutes, getting the baby-receiving contraption (does anybody know what those things are called?) ready and the room ready for delivery. at 4:45, after 3 pushes, she was born. Start to finish, it was a little over 3 hours. And, boy, am I glad it's over! Because the pushing stage was so short, I did tear, but that recovery has also been good, I think due to my Mom's diligent insistence that I stay in bed for the first week.

I think it's my easiest labor so far. They've all been a little different, but in my recollection, this was the quickest and least painful (not that I'd call it a picnic, but any means!). My midwife did not break my water, but let it break on its own, which did not happen until the second push. I think that helped distribute the pain of the contractions a little more evenly and made the whole thing more manageable.

2 weeks old!

Rose is 2 weeks old today. It's going very quickly, and I'm sure it will only go faster as the months go on. My midwife told me that I should spend 2 weeks taking it very, very easy, so I'm happy to be celebrating the end of that (not that I've been observing it very consistently).

Rose's stats from the pediatrician today:
8 lbs, 9 oz--she's gained 17 oz from the last checkup at 2 days. The Dr. said he would've been happy with 1/3 of that weight gain!
20 1/2 inches--this is hilarious to me. The hospital recorded her at 21 inches at birth, so somehow she's shrinking. Or maybe there's no consistent way to measure how long a baby really is :)

Finally, more Rose pictures!

Slip-n-Slide

Rose and Ellie

Rose Evangeline!

More pictures coming soon...

New Church Shoes!

Birthday Weekend

As some of you know, our 4th of July weekend was also our birthday weekend. Here are the pictures from our celebrations!

This is David's birthday dinner on the 3rd. He chose steak and shrimp, and we had yummy Indiana corn to go with it.



The morning of the 4th, Carver's birthday, started with Corn Pops for breakfast, and then we let Carver open his presents right away, instead of waiting until cake that evening.

We decided that this was the year for allowance, so his first present was 5 $1 bills and 3 jars that he has to put some of it in: savings, college, and church (the college was his idea--we would've only made him do the other two). He has to put $1 in each every week when he gets his allowance, and he's free to spend the other $2 however he likes, providing he shares any candy he buys with the girls (I know, kind of a bummer). To my surprise and delight, both weeks so far he has given more money to church and savings. We went to Target today, and he quickly realized how much he'll have to save for a big toy that he wants (boy, toys are expensive!). He did buy a little matchbox car with one of his dollars, and I think he was very excited to check out and pay for it himself.



Birthday cake at the end of the day:


I'm so thankful for my 2 boys, and it is so fun to celebrate their birthdays together!

Baby Nursery

What you can't really see is that it's smushed between David's "office" and my dresser and closet, at the long end of our bedroom. But it's everything we need!

This baby has got to be coming soon...

...if only because I've run out of places to obsessively organize.