I spent today wading through the sea of pepto bismol that was flowing through my bedroom. Gifts from my neighbor, who has a 6 month old baby girl.

It’s amazingness.  I have beautiful shades of blush and bashful everywhere.

Ryan walked into the room, smiled, and said pink.

Everything is so pink right now.

I’ve not really liked the color pink since I was about 8. Now every time I see it I smile and think this is so cool.
Because it’s so awesome to have a baby girl.

I commented to Kait earlier that this is the first pregnancy since I had her that I actually wanted a girl. Before this I really didn’t care much one way or the other.  This time I actually wanted a Lucy. Oh how God knows me so well.

It took me hours to clean up the pink overflow in our room.  I had got to go through each outfit, separate them by size, match up outfits (Yes!  She has outfits!) and create a place to put all her pinkness.  No, it shouldn’t have taken me hours, but I went slow and changed Lucy into a couple new things just to see what she looked like in them.

I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it.

And Ryan bought Lucy a pink car seat.
And pink pacifiers.

I wonder if I’ll ever get tired of all this pink.
Maybe, sometime, in the distant, far off future.

But there is always lavender…

She can smile!
And don’t even think of telling me it’s gas. Cause I don’t buy it for a minute!

Once again, crappy picture credits go to my cell phone. I think Lucy livens them up nicely though. She can make even the cruddiest photo cute.

Last night we put Jesse(2) to bed like normal.  About a half hour later we heard him playing in the hallway with a loud laptop toy our dear friend Rob, who we are so very thankful for but would sometimes like to kick in the shin except he’s also our pastor and God may not like that, gave him.

So we heard Jesse around the corner playing with this little toy.

Ryan paused the show we were watching and slowly put his phone around the corner to snap a picture.
But I knew that it was too late and I whispered to Ryan that Jesse heard the show pause and ran back to bed.

I was right.  This is the picture Ryan ended up snapping.

That’s where the boy was smart.  When Ryan went back to his room he was already back in his bed.
Jesse has proven to be a pretty smart kid, but maybe not all that smart in a way, too.

Perhaps a quieter toy would have suited him better in this situation?

I want to record what my first home birth experience was like while it is still fresh in my mind. I have some of it in the bits and pieces of my labor day updates so excuse the duplicates.

My due date, February 14th, came and went. No baby. I was having sporadic contractions but nothing exciting.  We spent the 15th doing stuff. I wanted to stay busy. It helped pass the time.

Ryan was surprised with yet another day off. And he used that time get stuff done in the garage. My Jeep, mostly. We went to and from the hardware and auto parts store a few times.
Like I said, just keeping busy.

It was Ryan’s birthday so we threw him a party with balloons and all.  It was fun.

That night I had trouble falling asleep. Contractions were between 8 and 20 minutes apart and were starting to hurt more than a little. I finally fell into a fitful sleep at about 12:30, I think. I woke up frequently to use the bathroom.
Jesse woke up at about 3:30 in the morning. Actually, he wasn’t really awake and by the time I got into his room to find out why he was crying he had stopped. It was while I was covering him up that my water first started to leak.

Because of that dumb GBS thing I had to call the midwifery. Everybody was delivering a baby. It was a busy night for them. That meant that we had to actually go to the birth center to get my antibiotics, then we came home expecting to have the baby within a few hours.

But nothing much more happened. Water kept leaking. Contractions stayed the same – only inching closer. At one point they completely stopped for a full hour. So I slept.

Ryan went back to sleep when we got home and slept until 9:30 or so. Then he got up, ate breakfast, and headed into the garage. I did a few chores between my contractions, took a few hot showers to help with the ache in my back, and tried to pass the time.
I had my weekly appointment at 2pm so I called them and asked if I should keep it. They said that not only should I keep it but expect to stay at the birth center. They were under staffed due to the magnitude of babies born and may not be able to make it to our home birth. I was disappointed but ready to have my baby.

My appointment showed that even though my contractions weren’t regular I was already 6cm dilated.  That surprised me. I normally don’t have very regular contractions but expected them to be a little more painful or regular before I’d dilate much.

My midwife, Tara, and I decided that I could go on home and if I could make it to 5pm before my contractions were steadily under 5 minutes apart I could still have a home birth.  I thought it would be cutting it close but we’re only 15 minutes from the birth center so decided to just go on home and wait it out.

Ryan ran to the auto parts store again.  He said it was way better than sitting in a hospital room just waiting.  I agreed.

At 4:30 I got a call from another midwife at the center.  She told me that if I didn’t deliver by 9pm I’d have to be transferred to the hospital since my water had been leaking for so long. Some Florida law they have no way of working around. And since my contractions at the time were between 4 and 10 minutes apart she didn’t sound hopeful that I would be having the baby soon.  I knew differently though and I told her that my contractions wouldn’t be steady until I was getting ready to have the baby.

I was pretty surprised when she didn’t seem to hear me. EDIT: after a little thought I think maybe she wasn’t so much ignoring my self-assessment, but was just wanting me to understand that I needed to get the baby born before 9 so they didn’t have to transfer me.  These gals really try to avoid transfers at all costs. 

However, Tara, my delivery midwife, took my past experience into account and since I had made it to 5pm she decided to bring the team over.  She said she just had a feeling about me and didn’t think it would be smart to wait much longer.

Apparently I’m meant to labor standing up.  My midwife team of 3 got here around 5:30pm, my midwife wearing her 6 month old daughter on her back. I thought that was awesome! The team consisted of Tara, her assistant Theresa, and a young trainee named Chelsea.  All three of these women are amazing people.  I love them dearly.

Tara asked me if I would like to sit or lay down.  I told her I was actually more comfortable walking around.  She said that sounded good and we all stood around the kitchen bar and talked about homeschooling between my contractions, which were about 3 or 4 minutes apart.  It felt very relaxed.  Ryan dinked around on the computer, looking for tires for the Jeep on Craigslist, occasionally heading into the garage to do something.

At around 6:30 Tara asked if I wanted to know how far dilated I was.  My contractions were bearable and hadn’t been closer than about 3 minutes.  I felt like I was on the edge of transition but that I hadn’t quite gotten there yet so didn’t expect much.

I decided to have her check me anyway, thinking I was probably only 7 cm or so.
But, I was wrong.
I was a full 10 with only a sliver of a lip on one side! The bag of water, which had been slowly leaking all day, was in the baby’s way, however, and Tara said to give a couple of pushes during the next contraction to try to break it.  3 contractions later it broke and her assistant said she thought the baby was going to slide on out.

That’s exactly what she did.

I called for my husband to come into the room and 3 or 4 pushes later we had a baby!

6:53pm on February 16th.

Tara immediately covered the baby up and laid her on my stomach.  Nobody, not even the midwife team saw the gender.  For a half hour they administered a little oxygen, wiped baby up, cut the cord, and cleaned me up – all while baby was on my stomach.  They never took her from me.  That was pretty awesome.

I was so completely tired. Relieved. Overjoyed. And excited to know if the baby was a boy or a girl.

Once all the mess was cleaned up, which I might add was quite minimal and contained, Kait told me I looked fine, normal again.  I didn’t understand why she was saying that until later when she expressed her opinions of watching the birth.

She went and got the boys from the neighbor’s house.  We brought them into our room and then revealed the gender to everybody all at once.

It was the coolest moment…

We had a baby girl!
Helen Lucille Aileen.

Lucy

I fed her, then we wrapped her in pink blankets and handed her to her Daddy.  While Dad and Kait fought over holding her, I got a shower.

Then we weighed her at 7 lbs 14 oz, and she was 20 1/4 inches long.

She didn’t have a bath.  Meaning her body temperature didn’t fall and warming lights were not necessary.  Sometimes raising a new baby’s body temperature after a bath can take hours. That’s hours you have to spend away from your new baby.  Newborn babies don’t need baths.  In fact, it’s better if they don’t have one right away.  For days even.  And it’s best if mom does the job of keeping babies temperature up.
Lucy hasn’t had a bath yet and you can see from her pictures that she’s perfectly clean.  I did gently wash her hair on Friday though.

All the midwives from the birth center were calling each other to see what we had.  They all seemed to be so involved in Lucy’s birth and were all excited to find out that we had a girl.  It was so sweet! Everybody seemed to care so much about her birth!

There were no complications.  Everything went quick and smooth.  2 hours after she was born the team packed up and took off.  The boys went to bed and Ryan, Kait, and I stayed up for a few hours – exhausted, but unable to sleep for all the excitement.  We watched a couple episodes of Psych waiting for the adrenalin to wear off, I ate a little food, then I went to sleep in my own bed.

It was so perfect to be in my own home. In my own bed.  Undisturbed.

The last few days have been spent resting.  There are Hot Wheels cars all over the living room floor.  The boys are outside playing.  My bed is unmade and my bathroom needs a good picking up.

Things are normal around here.

Except for the overflowing boxes of pink – gifts from my neighbor.  And the sweet baby girl laying on Kait’s chest – that’s new.

It’ll be home births for us from here on out, God willing we have more children.  Ryan commented that it was the best decision.

It was.

I’m up feeding Lucy, who happens to be a very good and very loud eater.
And I’m thinking about everything that has happened in the last few days. How it seems like overnight our entire life has changed.

It’s like this with every new baby.

My days still feel the same. The same chores still need to get done. The same kids need to be schooled. Grocery shopping, appointments, conversations, sleep…

Kids still spill their juice, my 2 year old still needs cuddling, the same kids seem to need baths. Again. Dogs still need to get fed.

But everything is still different.
In a very, very good way.

Lucy is finished eating now. She’s got her eyes closed but is making sweet baby noises and the cutest faces.
It’s going to be hard to stop staring at her and go back to sleep.
Just like with every other baby.

But somehow, it still feels totally different.

Today is a beautiful day.  And in so many ways.  I’m tired.  But I’m feeling so very well.

The sun is shining.  75 degrees is close to perfect weather.

Jesse fell asleep on the bed right beside where I’m sitting.  He’s completely stretched out and looks way too big, but so little at the same time.  He is so sweet.

My neighbor made us quiche for dinner last night, along with this amazing salad with butter roasted pecans.  There was plenty left over so I just ate a big salad for lunch.
I heart butter roasted pecans in a serious way.

My husband always gets me something right after we have a baby.  Sometimes it’s flowers.  Sometimes it’s a favorite food… 
This time around it was a pair of PJs.  They have Eeyore on them.  They’re perfect.

And then there is Lucy.
[sigh]
She’s so new.  So beautiful…

So stalked.

Seriously, my boys cannot leave her alone.  They are always looking at her, rubbing her head, holding her hand…  Is she awake?  Can I hold her?  What’s Lucy doing now?  Where is Lucy? Why is Lucy crying? Why is Lucy making that face? Where are her teeth? Why is she always sleeping? Why is she always eating?

Althought I’m used to Kait wanting to hold the new babies, I’ve never experienced something quite like this with the boys.  They’ve always liked having a new little one in the house but this reaction is different.  
And fascinating.
And adorable.

I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that she’s wearing pink. And I’m curious to see how this attention will play out as she grows. 

6 protective big brothers.  Poor girl.  

This could be very interesting.

I’ve been asked by a lot of people how my experience with my mom’s birth was. Therefore, I am writing this post which may or may not include some pictures I’ve taken recently.

I can honestly say it was pretty dead on to how I expected it to go; Lots of screaming and earplugs except for how fast it went(and Mom even said it was a really fast delivery).

All the dramatics I was displaying before the birth were total jokes, fyi.

It was an amazing experience, to put it lightly, and I am glad I made the choice to be there.  It was very special; especially since it was my only sister’s birth that I was there for. I’d never been able to be there for any of my brothers births, so the fact that the one birth I made it to was my sister’s…that’s pretty cool.

After Mom had the baby, I offered to run next door and grab the boys so we could all find out what the baby was. When we returned, we had to wait for an eternity to be allowed in. During that time, I asked the boys to do the sign for girl or boy in sign language to tell me what they thought it was. Joe, Matthew, Sam, and I all guessed girl while Gabe and Ben said boy. After 3 eons had gone by and we were finally allowed in, we all found out what the babe was together and were overjoyed to find it was a girl! I started crying and the boys let out a chorus of “whoas” and “oohs” and “yays”.

I got to hold her the same night she was born…in fact, it was in the same hour. And she smiled at me. I was so happy.

Usually I have to wait at least 12 hours before seeing my new sibling. It was so awesome to be able to hold her only an hour after she was born!

It was so awesome!

Well, anyway, that’s how it was for me! I was tearing up as I watched the process- it was so amazing! –  but it was an experience I do not regret embracing. I’ll be posting pictures of the boys with their little sis soon!

Here is a picture Kait snapped of Lucy today.  She’s taken a whole lot more but I don’t have access to most of them yet.

But soon…

A flower was destroyed in the making of this photo.  I’m feeling okay about it. Sometimes a little sacrifice is necessary for the greater cuteness.
You better believe there will be more adorable pictures to come.  You may find yourself nauseated by the time we’re done posting about all this newness.

It’s to be sickeningly sweet!

Jesse(2) stuck out his pudgy little arms and asked, I hold it?

He got his turn to hold it not long after he asked me that for the first time.
A full 20 minutes he held Lucy.
Fending off Matthew, who he thought was coming over to take the baby, he clutched his little arms around her and said sternly, No, Matthew! No baby!

He really likes her. He’s been excited and chatty since the birth Wednesday night. Two separate neighbors have even commented on the change in him. I can’t even pick him up, yet he seems so okay with it.

Possibly he realizes that now he has a younger sibling to beat up on in the future?

Or maybe he’s just happy it’s a girl and he won’t have to share his cars.

He could just likes babies. Our neighbor has a baby girl though and Jesse hasn’t shown much interest in her.

For now, however, I like to think that he just really likes his new sister.

She is pretty neato, if I do say so myself.
I really like her too.

She’s here.  She’s a girl.  I can’t stop saying that.

My home birth was pretty great.  I was actually up walking until I was a full 10 cm.  My contractions never got much closer than 3 minutes apart and they completely stopped when sat or laid down.  But, as long as I could walk I progressed amazingly fast.  I pushed for less than 5 minutes and little Lucy was born

Or Lyndie.

I haven’t decided what I’m going to call her.  Jesse calls her Woosy.  It’s very adorable.
I’m leaning towards Lucy.
I love the name Lucy.

The midwives covered her up immediately and nobody knew what her gender was until they got me cleaned up and covered up.  Then we brought all the kids in and revealed what she was together.  It was such a unique way to find out that I was, in fact, holding a girl.

And the delivery team is so emotionally involved.  They were calling the other midwives who all seemed excited to learn what we had.  I’ve never had a doctor or nurse care a lick about what the gender of my baby was.  I’ve had really good doctors and nurses, but none so excited like my midwife team.  It was a very different experience. A better experience.

All the kids are so happy.  Even the ones who wanted another brother are more than satisfied with their new baby sister. The 4 oldest have all commented that they are really happy to have me at home and that they got to see Lucy right away instead of having to wait until Dad could come pick them up and bring them to the hospital.  And my husband was able to keep himself busy yesterday, accomplishing a lot in the garage.  And right now he’s out playing football with our boys and the neighborhood kids.  He’s said over and over again that this was the best decision, having the baby at home.

I’m feeling pretty good considering I just had a baby 24 hours ago. And it’s great to be at home.  I like being able to get up and go to the kitchen if I want something.  I really like not sitting in a lonely, small hospital room.  And I really, really like not being woken up in the middle of the night by a nurse who just has to disturb my much needed restful sleep every couple hours during those first couple days where baby sleeps so well, to press on my stomach and take my temperature.
And being able to sleep in my own bed.
And no marginal hospital food.

I’m so pleased with this birth.
I’m so happy to be at home.

I’m so happy to have a Lucy. Or Lyndie.  Or Aileen.

Oh, and did I mention I have a baby girl?

I’m loving it.