Now for the girl version:
I'm pretty sure that when I was pregnant with Mason I had pictures of my belly up every few weeks. I guess that was because my whole family lived across the country and wanted to see. Now that we live closer to them I think they all were able to partake in my largeness. Just for posterity sake though, here are a few pics of me about a week before delivering.
The few weeks before Sage was born I felt a little sad about Mason no longer being our only child. I know that might sound evil, and I am so in love with our little girl and glad she is here, but I still felt like I was losing that special "its you and me" relationship I had with Mason. I think we are both still adjusting to that change.
In an effort to make the best of the few weeks we had left where it was just us, we tried to do some fun things. I don't have pictures of all of our activities, but here is one of our trips to boondocks with Jackson and Camille.
(Note the tongue. He's the Michael Jordan of bowling.)
The boys LOVE the kiddie cove.
So now its time for the labor story. Again for those of you not interested, please feel free to scroll past. For the rest of you, here is the story...
I had a doctor's appointment on Wednesday (the 19th) morning where my wonderful, love her to death doctor stripped my membranes (hey- I warned you. If you don't want to know then stop reading). The rest of the day was spent feeling mildly to moderately uncomfortable with contractions still irregular but increasingly painful. Luckily I knew I was going to have my membranes stripped (I know, again with the strippage) so we planned to have my mom come down on Wednesday just in case I went into labor. Nic got home around 6ish and by then I was having contractions every 8-10 minutes. So Nic decided to mow the lawn. (Always thinking ahead that guy.) By the time he was finished and we had Mason in bed, my contractions were coming every 6-8 minutes and increasingly painful. At this point I was pretty sure this was "it", but I also knew that these things could peter out and it could end up, in fact, not being "it". So we waited patiently. We even tried to go to bed. I dozed off between contractions for a little bit, but then found that sleeping wasn't happening. Nic had said he wanted to shower before we went in, if we went in, so to let him know. After about an hour of hard contractions I told Nic he better get in the shower. He wanted to time more contractions and after about 15 more minutes of that I stood up and demanded that he get in the shower. While he showered my contractions were coming every 3 minutes and I was finally convinced that this was it. So we got the bags and headed up to the hospital (again- so nice having my mom there so we didn't have to wake Mason). Despite the gas light coming on and getting detoured due to "night time construction" we made it to the hospital. We pulled up to the front where the valet parking is and the guy at the desk just stared at us. After several minutes of this (by now I'm out of the car leaning on the hood having a major contraction), he came out to ask if we were coming in to the hospital. I wanted to say, "No, I'm just fat and like to lean on the hood of my car breathing heavily while I hang out outside of hospitals at 3 am." I didn't though and through entirely too much discussion he and Nic finally worked out the car situation. At that point Nic tried to put me in a wheelchair, which I refused so we walked into labor and delivery. The only problem is that neither of us were entirely sure where labor and delivery was. So after some questioning we finally found the door that led there. The only issue here was that you have to push a button and then wait to be admitted. The sign next to the button says to be patient, but neither of us realized that being "patient" meant waiting like 10 minutes for them to let you in. Now 10 minutes might not seem like a long time, but thats 3 good contractions. So finally they let me in, and determined through the tears in my eyes, checking my cervix, and a quick ultra sound that I was indeed in labor. With that I was admitted. About 2 hours later I had my epidural, and an hour or two after that it was tweaked just right so it was working beautifully. Nic and I were then able to get a little sleep. At about 9 am they decided I wasn't progressing quite as quickly as they would like (I had been dilated to a 6 for quite some time), so they decided to start me on a little pitocen to get things going. They waited about an hour to do so though, because my doctor was in surgery and they wanted to wait for her to get out before I delivered. So at about 10:30 they started the pitocen and by 11:24 I was ready to push. (They did get a little worried about her heart rate toward the end, but turns out she was just ready to come out and there wasn't anything to worry about.) So when the time came my doctor kept saying, "a few pushes and we'll have her out". After pushing for over 3 hours with Mason, though, I was gearing up for the long haul. Sure enough though, after one push Nic leaned over and said, "she's almost here." Then two more pushes and she was out. Fantastic. She came out crying, the sound you love to hear. They put her up on my belly and I was actually able to hold her for about an hour before they even took her away to weigh her. She was beautiful. She had lots of dark hair and long eyelashes. I thought at the time she looked like Mason, and she does, but not as much as I initially thought. She was so sweet and hungry! Two things that haven't changed much in the last few weeks. So after all of that we were wheeled into a nice room and got to have some alone time with Sage. Later that evening my mom brough Mason up and he got to meet his new baby sister. He was so cute with her and just kept smiling and checking her out. Then Marci brought up Seth and Ellen and they go to see her too. Nic went home with Mason that night and got him ready for bed, then came back up and stayed the night with us in the hospital. The next day I was feeling pretty good (and Nic was feeling pretty anxious to get home), so we asked if we could be discharged. Everything went so smoothly, and Sage and I were doing well, so they agreed and we went home after being in the hopsital for only about 36 hours.
Whew. So that was it. Glad you survived. Now here is the fun part. The pictures.
This smile is brought to you by my epidural.
Here she is!
7 lbs 12 oz. 20 inches long.
Big brother meets her for the first time.
First family photo about 5 hours after she was born.
Daddy and the burrito.
Going home!
First few days at home...
First bath.
The flowers Nic had waiting for me when I got home. Love him.
Pretty girl.
Nell Nell loves her.
A little more Nell love.
Daddy coming home is by far the highlight of the day.
Study buddies.
Tummy time with Mason can be dangerous. We are still working on helping him understand that he can't wrestle with her.
Our first outing to the park.
Love this girl!
To help channel some of his energy, we bought Mason a trampoline. And don't worry, Nic's coworkers have given him enough crap for us buying out 2 year old a trampoline (including x-rays of broken legs from trampoline accidents). He's tough, though, and he loves it and we are careful.
My first attempt to take them for a walk. It actually ended poorly and now we walk with Sage in the Ergo and Mason in the stroller (or walking).
Check out those lashes.
So there you have it. Again I apologize for the lateness (and therefore lengthiness) of this post. Life should start calming down now, right? Right??
