Fifth Time's a Charm

Yes folks, it's true -- this was the best birth experience EVER. The doctors, nurses, etc. were beyond accomodating and helpful and I am so grateful for everyone's prayers and well-wishes and truly believe that all of you contributed to how awesome everything went.

So, here's the story. Last Wednesday I thought would be the day -- I was having contractions on and off all day long and it really seemed like things would be a go. And then they just stopped. And then for the next couple of days, absolutely NOTHING was happening. Which was probably for the best because Ethan and Grace had their "Sneak a Peek" night at school on Thursday to drop off school supplies and meet their teacher, and then Sophie had her Preschool "Open House" on Friday where she got to see her classroom and meet her teacher. I spent those two days getting last minute things ready and resigning myself to being induced on Monday (today).

Me and Amy decided to have a girl's night out on the town Friday night and grabbed dinner at Bread Co. and then went to see "The Help" -- which we both really liked. (Surprisingly so. I never have very high expectations for movies based on books. Especially books that I REALLY liked.) After the movie was over, as we were walking to the car I noticed a giant full moon in the sky and joked with Amy that maybe THAT would put me in labor that night. Hahaha.

Fast forward a few hours later and I woke up to Sophie crying in our room and then feeling a whole lot of back pain. After Scott got Sophie back to sleep I realized that I was having pretty regular contractions -- about 6 to 7 minutes apart -- and wasn't able to go back to sleep. About 4o minutes later they had gotten closer together -- about 3 to 4 minutes apart -- and I was starting to wonder if this was the real deal or more false labor. I woke Scott up a little bit later and we decided that we might as well go in to the hospital to get it checked out. So, I took a quick shower, got dressed, woke Amy up to let her know we were going, and headed over to the hospital around 4 in the morning.

In hindsight, we probably could have waited another couple of hours before going on over, but I was worried about risking it too much because of how quickly my last few labors have progressed. All in all, though, I'm glad we went when we did because I LOVED our nurses and everyone else who was there and helped us. The doctor broke my water around 7:30 and a few hours later Alex was ready to make his arrival! The epidural worked awesome and even though Alex is my biggest baby by FAR, the actual delivery was practically perfect in every way!

Alexander Nicholas
August 13th, 2011
11:40 AM
8 lbs. 15 oz.
22 inches

(a lot of the pictures of Alex so far are like deja vu of Sophie)

I am still a bit in shock that he is so BIG! The rest of the hospital stay continued to be awesome, and I was a bit sad when it was time to leave. Hahahaha. Amy was super nanny extraordinaire and managed to handle all the kids while Scott stayed with me in the hospital. They all came to visit on Saturday and Sunday, and apparently were the talk of the maternity ward! Hahaha. The first day they came was about par for the course -- Jane was crazy running all around the room, climbing on the bed, trying to hold the baby, and pushing the other kids out of the way when they wanted a turn; Ethan, Grace, and Sophie alternated between fighting over whose turn it was to hold the baby and what they wanted to watch on the TV in the room; and then Sophie fell off the couch right before they left and fell flat on her head on the floor necessitating an ice pack for the road.

We saw this "angry little elf face" from Sophie A LOT while at the hospital.

New family of 7.










Peek a Boo

We checked out of the hospital this morning and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'll be able to handle this transition to 5 kids, because I'll be honest, it was complete chaos here this afternoon with everyone home -- and that was WITH Scott and Amy's help! School starts tomorrow, and I'm really hoping that THAT will help to keep things under control, but we shall see!

On the way home...