Oh. my. goodness. None of my girls have ever been interested in a binkie. I have heard people say that you really don’t want your baby to be a thumb sucker, because it can be so much harder to get her to stop when she’s older. But this is so cute, I can’t bring myself to mind one bit.
Every night she has a little special time with her Daddy and seems to enjoy it thoroughly.
Daddy’s Girl.
Miss ran right into her room to get a book to read to “Baby Sissy.”
Lass kept wanting to pull her blankets off to see her better.
And my protective eldest repeatedly put the blankets back on, very gently, so she wouldn’t get cold.
Miss was excited to help with her sister’s first bath at home.
She constantly wants to hold “her baby.” Lass just wants to wear multiple tutus (there are five on her below).
We had a bit of a birthday party over the weekend.
And the girls “helped” their Daddy start getting ready to plant our garden.
Miss spent lots of time telling stories with her Grandma. I think this one was a story about how her baby sister spit up, and how Lass used to spit up when she was a baby, and Miss herself used to spit up when she was a baby…
I was sad that my parents left this morning, but must say I’m pleased with how our first day on our own went. I even got a shower and made it with all three girls to Miss’s gymnastics class. Early. Miss is very into helping and she and Lass play together so well, the adjustment has gone very well so far. I have been told that the shift from two kids to three is easier than the transition from one to two. I’d say I agree with that. A good friend of mine also made a statement that I think is very true. She said, “No matter how many kids you have, when you bring home a new baby it’s going to make things a bit crazy for a while.” Yep. Today, though I made it to gymnastics with clean hair and three adequately dressed and groomed children, I did forget to brush my teeth and put a coat on. Goals for tomorrow, I suppose…
Then I could get up and move around, though I still had to carry the monitor with me. I put my lovely hospital-issued “track shoes” on and my husband and I got to walking.
We walked for three hours, almost nonstop. We did have to pause for a minute after each lap around the L&D floor so our nurse could monitor Sis’s heart rate, because the mobile monitor wasn’t working well while I walked. After three hours, we took a little break. I didn’t want to stop, because every time I did, my contractions, such as they were, would slow down, but we were hungry and just needed to sit for a few. So I hung out on the labor ball, my hubby got lunch and I got some Italian ice and Jello (and snuck a few of his fries), and we took a short break.
We got up and walked some more after lunch. Labor had started, in that I was having somewhat regular contractions, but they were pretty mild and my husband and I continued to joke and chat as we walked. After a bit we had to stop again for monitoring because of a deceleration in Sis’s heart rate, so I sat on the ball some more. As you can see, my labor was still not too difficult at this point.
In fact, my husband and I were lamenting how slowly things were moving and trying to gear ourselves up mentally for another really long labor like Lass’s. At 1:30 the nurse said we could get up and walk again but she wanted to check my progress first. I didn’t really want her to, because I just knew I had not progressed much, but I let her anyway because I’m cooperative like that. I was only 5cm. I had been 4cm when I started at 8am. This did not encourage me.
But things began to change rather quickly after that. We got up and walked a bit more, though I think we only made it one and a half laps or so. We were going much more slowly and I was having to stop for each contraction. The contractions were coming much more closely together and I told my husband we needed to go back to the room. When we got there I sat back on the ball and things got serious.
We weren’t joking and chatting anymore, and by about 2:30 it was all I could do to stay focused through each contraction. As he was during my labor with Lass, my husband was awesome.
I decided I wanted to try something different, so I asked to get into the tub. The nurse again said she wanted to check me before I did. I was feeling kind of discouraged and thinking I was not going to be able to continue without an epidural the way things were going if she told me I hadn’t progressed much, but I agreed to let her check me. As soon as I stood up, she almost didn’t need to. I immediately had an overwhelming, all-consuming need to push. This urge came with two conflicting but equally strong thoughts, “Oh my gosh this is pure torture!” and “Woohoo! I’m almost done!” The nurse checked me and sure enough, I was ready to get the job done. Unfortunately, the room was not set up and my doctor wasn’t there, so I had to wait a bit before I was allowed to. This was the worst part. My husband and nurse kept reminding me how to breathe to keep myself from pushing. The best thing that my husband said to me, many times during that short period of intense labor, was “This will end. Just get through this one contraction.” That was the perfectthing to say to help. Even so, it seemed to take forever (though I’m sure it was only 10 minutes or so) before everything was ready and my doctor was there. Two or three contractions later, Sis was born!
Then she peed on me.
Born at 3:06 pm. 9 lbs, 7 oz, 20 inches of gorgeous. As you can see she is just perfect.
I am going home later today after my husband gets off work. I can’t wait to see my big girls and let them meet their baby Sis. I am so thoroughly blessed.