“In all of living, have much fun and laughter. Life is to be enjoyed, not just endured.” Hinckley: She is Here!

As February finished out we were all preparing for the new baby's arrival. I was packing up things that we wouldn't be needing before we move. I also had a goal to freeze at least one meal a week for the 8 weeks leading up to delivery time and was able to meet it! (which was and still is awesome!) And I taught Heath how to load and start the bread machine. That has been life changing. He starts a batch after breakfast every day, so we now have fresh yummy bread each day and I don't even have to think about it. I just have to make sure he has plenty of wheat ground into flour for the week and he's good to go. Best of all he LOVES to do it, so if we eat most of it for lunch or dinner he asks if he can please start another loaf.

Hannah has been taking good care of her babies. Practicing.

A couple weeks before my due date I woke up in the morning and my hands and face had swollen up like crazy. I couldn't close my hands they were so swollen. I called my OB and he asked me to come in. Thankfully Matt had a half day at work and was able to come switch me out and stay with the kids. I was leaking protein into my urine so they took some blood samples to test. My blood pressure was normal (105/65) but with the protein leakage and swelling the were worried about preeclampsia. While I was waiting to hear back about the blood my Dr came to explain that depending on what my blood levels look like we may be having a baby that day. If they are unfavorable they would induce or possibly c section me right then. That was a bit unsettling. After about an hour they came back and said that nothing in my blood says we have to have a baby today. (I felt much better after that news) I was able to go home (which was so great because Rebecca and her family had come up to visit us!) but was told to take it as easy as I could. They continued to check my protein levels and blood levels at each appointment each week and Matt monitored my blood pressure here at home pretty closely. (which never went up at all) After another week they decided that if the baby didn't make it on her own by March 3rd, they would be inducing me. So she got to come a week early.

We had to be at the hospital at 12am the morning of the 3rd. Thankfully I have some wonderful friends who offered to watch our kids during the day so I could take a nap before going in that night. We dropped our kids off at the Metcalf's house at bedtime then came home to try to fall asleep. (I never really can sleep before being induced. Too much to think about...) We left the house around 11:15pm to head to the hospital. We got all settled into the delivery room. They said I was already contracting regularly, but I didn't feel any of them. I was dilated to a 1. (part of me thinks they said I was at a 1 just to give me some hope that things were moving along) They started me on Pitocin around 1am. Matt slept away on his little bed, and I tried to relax and fall asleep. The nurse came in about every half hour to turn up my dosage on the pit so I didn't really ever sleep.

By about 5am I was at the full dosage of pitocin and still not feeling anything. The nurse had asked me probably 20 times if I was ready for my epidural yet, but I wasn't in any pain so I didn't see any reason to get that going and be numb and unable to move. My monitor showed that I was having some really good consistent contractions and I was at a 3, so at 6:30am Dr Jostes came in and broke my water. That got things moving and by 7:30 I was finally feeling the contractions. At 7am they had a shift change and I loved my second nurse! She was so proactive and so kind. At 9:30am I was at a 5 and 100% effaced. I got the epidural at 9:30am. At 10am I was at a 7. Dr Jostes told me to sit at the end of the bed with my feet up and lean forward and I'd have a baby within half an hour. I did, then started to feel a lot of pressure. At 10:20ish we got ready. I pushed once and her head came out. She had the cord wrapped around her neck so he told me to stop pushing while he flipped if off her neck. Then I pushed again and her shoulders came through. I felt and heard a pop but no one said much of it so we just kept going. Then he had me put my hands down and lift her under her armpits the rest of the way out and up onto my chest. I've never had a Dr do that before and it was pretty neat. I kind of got to be the one to deliver her. : ) They declared her born at 10:26am.

She was so quiet and sweet right from the start. She had tons of butter covering her little body. The most of any of our kids.

We held her and marveled at the sweet little girl that was ours for a couple hours.

I ate some breakfast. (I was starving!) She ate some breakfast. (Both of our girls have been chap eaters right from the start.)

Then the nurse brought in the scale and eye ointment and vitamin k shot.

She got weighed and all of her other fun stuff with us.

After they did her little foot prints the nurse stamped a foot print onto Matt's forearm. The kids loved that when he went to pick them up. He told them their new sister had a message for them.

8lbs 8.7oz 20.5in long 14in head

The first day and night in the hospital she did great. Only woke up to eat about every 2-3 hours through the night. We both got a good amount of sleep. The second day though she became super sad and fussy. She only was content if I was holding her. That night was rough. I would get her happy and asleep and lay her down to send to the nursery so I could sleep. Each time about 15 minutes later they would bring her back crying through the halls. (I could always hear her before she made it to our room and knew it was my baby) They would say something like, weve been trying everything to get her to calm down, rocking, bouncing, changing, swaddling, but she just wont calm down. Each time as soon as they would put her into my hands she would immediately calm down, be quiet and fall asleep.

My nurse was so kind and supportive that night. She had 2kids and little twins so I think she knew what I needed. She helped me make a little nest of pillows on my bed so I could sleep sitting up holding the baby. She also came in every so often and would bring me snacks and water. She never really talked through the night so we could try to sleep. She was great.

The next day as we were getting ready to be discharged, the pediatrician came in and said that she thought the baby's clavicle was broken and wanted to have it xrayed. Things started to really make sense when she said that. I remembered the pop sound and feeling during delivery and the baby was so sad unless I was holding her (which I usually sit still when holding babies, whereas the nurses were bouncing her all around trying to calm her.... poor little girl)

They took her to the nursery and did a mini xray which showed that her right clavicle was split right in the middle. They taught us how to keep it pinned down so it didn't cause her pain and suggested she sleep on a pillow until it heals up a bit and isn't so sore to sleep on a hard surface. They also told us to give her tylanol for about a week. In case you're wondering an 8 pound baby's dose is 1ml every 4 hours. So tiny. (She was 8# when we left the hospital)

I love how sweet little boys become when they are around a new baby. Heath wanted to hold her the whole time he was at the Hospital and asked Matt several times the next day if he could go back and hold her some more.

Houston wanted to hold her for about 3 minutes then said, K I'm done. : )

He kept telling me how tiny and cute she was.

All Hannah could do was laugh and squeal in joy! It was pretty cute.

Grandma came up to stay the week with us since it was her spring break! She is fabulous and it was helpful to have her with us! We may have cried when she left.