Gosh, I know I've been absent from my blog for practically forever! What has it been now, two months? It's been quite an adjustment having a newborn (again) but I'm loving every single minute of it. I have LOTS of photos to post from the last few months, so I hope you don't mind scrolling through all of them during the upcoming week! (Most will be vintage-y looking Instagram photos. Don't you love that iPhone app? It's so quick and easy to take those types of photos while toting a baby around, as opposed to lugging around my bulky camera.) I'll post them in several entries within the next few days so I don't bombard you all at once. (Of course, that's if anyone still checks in here to read after all this time. Leave a comment and say hello if you do!)
Today, our Priscilla Renee is six weeks old. She is an absolute doll (Yes, I'm VERY partial!) and Jason and I just adore her! She was born on April 4th, 2011 at 10:59AM. She weighed eight pounds and one half of an ounce and was twenty and one quarter inches long. We were thrilled when when she arrived with a thick head of brown hair and blue eyes! (Maybe her eyes will turn green like mine? Our son's did when he was a few years old! It must be the Irish I passed down to him.)
Anyway, I was scheduled to be induced at 6:00am on Monday, April 4th because my doctor would be out of town later that week. Since I was only a week away from my due date anyway, my doctor asked if we wanted to go ahead and be induced to make sure she would be the one to deliver Priscilla. Of course that was what we wanted! (After all, it's kind of nice to not have a strange new doctor all up in your grill, don't you agree, ladies?!)
So, on April 4th, I got up at 4:30am to do my hair and makeup. (Yes, I wanted to look nice in my labor/delivery photos! I figured if I applied a lot of makeup and hairspray, I'd still have some left by the time I was finished with the birth! If you know myself or my family personally, you know I get that from my mom. Ha!) We decided to let Connor stay home from school Monday and Tuesday so he wouldn't feel left out of the big event. We were all half asleep, especially the little dude. Of course, Jason had his travel mug of coffee to take with him. If only the nurses would have hooked a caffeine IV up to him that morning! Ha!
But, WAIT...guess what? While I was getting ready that morning, I began having contractions! They got stronger and stronger and when we walked inside the hospital so I could "be induced" they were so strong, they brought tears to my eyes! Of course, because they were expecting me, my room was already ready and my paperwork was already printed and waiting to be filled out. It was so convenient and the planner in me just LOVED that I knew when I was "going to be induced"! Well, the contractions got SO strong that they held off on giving me Pitocin. (The medicine that makes strong contractions start.) Now, I have a high pain tolerance but they were just getting unbearable, so I finally asked the nurse to bring on the drugs! (I admire people who want to have a "natural birth" with no pain medicine, but I just feel that God gave people brains to invent wonderful things like pain medicine.) Just as I was holding very still for my epidural, my water broke! Um, that was quite a surprise!! My labor started all on its own! We were thrilled, yet pleasantly surprised!
The super hard, not so pleasant part only lasted for a few minutes, thank you Jesus. I cannot believe how easy this labor and delivery was. It was SO much easier than with Connor. Jason and I joked that I was scheduled to be induced, but it ended up being more like a reservation for Priscilla to arrive when she wanted to! (Of course, what happened a couple days later made up for such an easy way to go! But, I'll get into that in a later post.)
Here we are, just minutes after she was born:
Jason and Connor stayed with me the entire time in the hospital...they slept on the uncomfortable couch and everything, poor guys! (Actually, for some of the night, Connor slept in the hospital bed with me.) Everything went so smoothly that we only had to stay 24 hours! Can you believe that? It was actually more than 24 due to a dingbat nurse who FORGOT about us, but that's another story I won't get in to. By the way, Jason and I don't do the waiting thing very well. We hate waiting. And crowds. Fun fact.
Anyway, Connor stayed amused with a special "big brother survival bag" that I made for him. It was a bag filled with special snacks, the Guiness Book of World Records, some comfy pajama pants, a little doodling journal, mini cans of root beer, a new DS game and some other little things. I think it helped him feel special, too. It was a nice distraction, anyway!
Of course, we had TONS of visitors parading in and out of the room, which we loved! We have so much extended family in the area and feel so blessed that our children (It still sounds weird to say "children"...plural!) have so many people they see on a frequent basis who love them. When we were finally home, though, we were EXAUSTED and really enjoyed the peace and quiet, too!
(The photo below is my FAVORITE photo ever and is currently my iPhone wallpaper on my lock screen.)
We are so thankful that God gave us a healthy baby girl. I remember crying happy tears right after I delivered when they put her on my chest and I saw that Jason was teary-eyed, too. Those couple of minutes were such a blur to me due to all of the drugs, hormones and emotions floating around in my head. Right after the nurses wrapped Priscilla up in a hospital blanket, Connor came in the room to meet and hold her before any of our other relatives met her. He asked weeks beforehand if we would let him do that and of course we thought it was a wonderful idea. Jason was the only one in the delivery room with me. I am NOT the kind of person who likes an audience when my babies are born. Some do, but not me! I'm just not comfortable with that...no matter how much I love my close family. Sorry, Jason only! Lol!
This morning at her six week check-up, she weighed nine pounds, seven ounces and is in the 50th percentile for height and weight...absolutely perfect! At my checkup, I found out that everything healed okay and also got the go ahead to go back to the gym, which I REALLY, REALLY need to do. (But, I suppose that is a whole post in and of itself for another day.)
I have lots to catch you up on (especially all of the cute things she's worn in the last month!) so I'll post more very soon!
