June

Penelope, you are such a delight to us. You are one week old today. You eat every three hours and during the night you give me a stretch of 4-6 hours. Your GB is here and gets up with your brother at 7 so you and I can sleep until 10. You are starting to be so alert during the day. You like to look at and listen to me, your dad and brother. P, you are now three weeks old. You and your brother dont't give me much time to blog :) you have the biggest blue eyes. You look up at us with them and we say you look like a little owl. I would much rather hold you, play trains with him or get a nap! Your daddy's parents got to meet you last week and of coarse they loved you to pieces. You rolled from belly to back this morning, which is really early- you are so strong! You like being on your tummy but I make you sleep on your back at night so you can safely breath. You are such a sweetheart and you go with the flow. We go to at least 1 place once a day like publix, target, chick fil a, the playground, etc. to get Liam out and to do errands and you happily tag along. I had forgotten a few things about life with a newborn: I have to take QUICK showers, I am exhausted from night time feedings and time is flying! I have learned that 2 babies crying is 100 times worse than 1 baby crying. Liam is saying more words, praise the lord! Wait, there, what's that?, down, more, go, bye, choo-choo, vroom, roar are some I can think of right now.

Penelope's Birth June 5th, 2012

The weekend after my appointment came and went and still no baby. I was still having consistent, not painful but mildly uncomfortable contractions. So we decided to have Dr. Dyal break my water on Tuesday morning at 8:00 am. I was super worried this wasn't the right thing to do and that this intervention would lead to more interventions. But I knew that this wasn't rational, it was just fear. so we arrived at hospital at 8:00. we got checked in and in a room, my doctor had gone back to the office to be with appointments until noon. They gave me an I.V. And it wasn't bad at all! It is usually one of the worst parts for me. I wasn't hooked up to anything but it's called a Hepi-lock so they have access just in case. From 9:00 to 12:00 Will and I just hung out and killed time and he even snuck me in a kids turkey sandwich from Firehouse. At 12:00 she came in and examined me and I was still a solid 4, 100% and -1 station which I was bummed about that I hadn't had any change since Thursday. She then broke my water and I went from 12:00 to 2:00 with little to no pain. I spent time standing, walking and on the birthing ball to try to get things moving. Then at 2:00 the nurse came in and said Dr. Dyal had called and was watching my contractions and asked my pain level and might want to start pitocin if I felt comfortable with it. I declined it and said let's see where I'm at at 4:00. About 10 minutes later I was in full force active labor. It took Will off guard because we were talking and laughing and all of the sudden I snapped at him for not being over by me and on his computer and told him I could not get in control of the pain. I don't remember everything but I just know I had intense contractions every few minutes. I did get good breaks in between them and was able to breath through them with Will's help, I tried to lay down a couple of times and it would throw me into another contraction, so the most comfortable position would just be rocking forward and backward on the birthing ball and leaning on Will like we were dancing and sway. I was in really bad pain and knew it was happening fast. With Liam I just laid in bed on my left side in the fetal position and'moaned through them while Will rubbed my back so this was really different. My nurse Angie was awesome! I had prayed I would have a nurse that supported natural childbirth and she totally did. I asked her to check me and I was 6cm. Yay only 4 more to go! 20 minutes later I asked to be checked again 7.5. Woah. We are having this baby soon. I start yelling loud through each contraction, I ripped the contraction monitor and baby heart rate monitor off. I'm in transition I say I can't do it. I ask for something to take the edge off. I ask to get checked and I'm 9cm. I tell her I don't want any medicine. The doctor arrives and i tell her to hurry up and check me I want to have Penelope. I'm 9.5, she tries to help me get to 10 on the right side. I feel the urge to push, I give a couple little test pushes and Penelope was turned a bit. It was painful, it was 3 good pushes and she was here! Active labor was 2.5 hours from 2:10 to 4:37, with 6 minutes of pushing. She was amazing. She was so beautiful they put her right on my chest and she starting nursing right away for an hour! She weighed 7 pounds 7 ounces and was 19 and 3/4 inches long. Will was perfect! He said all the right things and was right there for me the whole time. Everyone kept telling us what a good team we were. I needed a few stitches and it was painful and Will had to sit down because he felt like he might pass out while that was happening. The whole experience couldn't have been more perfect. I was just so thankful it was so quick. We are so blessed she is so healthy. We got to go home the next day and she has been the best little baby. A really good strong eater and wonderful sleeper. Liam is so good with her. At their first meeting at the house the day after she was born he showed very little interest in her and the days following he began rubbing her hands and face so gentle and soft and giving her sweet kisses. He goes to check on her often in her Moses basket and talks to her. The day after we got home we took her to the pediatrician, it was his only rule since he discharged us just 24 hours after she was born. She was in her carseat on the family room floor and Liam began giving her diapers and a paci and lipgloss, it was really cute like she needs all this stuff! Will amd I were married for 4 years June 6th and he went to go get me a smoothie snd came back with a little wedding bell charm for my pandora bracelet and 2 clips. It was really sweet. And Ashley watched Liam while we went to the pediatrician and five guys with Penelope so we even got a little date! It has been the best week and will try to blog more about her first week home soon. We did her newborn pictures today and I realized while watching Liam and Penelope get their photograph taken that my heart is so full!