Since it's been 3 weeks and since both kiddos are napping right now and I'm feeling very uncharistically non-zombie like I decided to hurry and write a little about the birthing of little Sophie Anne.
Man oh man this was a complete 180 when comparing to Conner. So I'll warn you now it's not really a very interesting story.
My story starts about 4 weeks ago when Rusty went off to play flag football with the ward. My words as he was leaving: "don't get hurt" because we knew were were probably having this baby next week. His game didn't start until like 9pm and at 10:30 I get a call from a fellow ward man saying they were in the ER because he dislocated his shoulder. Thanks for taking my advice hon! You should listen to your wife more often! He was planning on taking a bunch of days off that week anyway so he could do my suuuuuper long honey-do list but instead he just took it off and was out of commission. So when you see pictures of Rusty with a sling that is why.
So anyway, I talked to my doc on Tues the 25th at my last appointment and we decided on Thurs Sept 27th at 7:00am we would induce me. aaaaaa! I'm not sure if I like knowing ahead of time or not exactly WHEN I'm going to have a baby. On the one hand I can get completely ready, but on the other hand I drove myself nutso with anticipation! On wed I cleaned like there was no tomorrow (because there really was no tomorrow...to clean that is). One, because I let's be honest, there is nothing better than coming home from vacation, or work, or in my case labor and delivery, to a nice clean house and two, there was no need to be careful and try to keep this baby in any longer! and the more I could progress on my own the shorter labor in the hospital would be. So I mopped and vacuumed all the floors, scrubbed the bathrooms, cleaned all little fingerprints off everything, etc.
Then later that night my parents drove up from Orem to pick up Conner. Then it was just waiting time. It was pretty weird not to have Conner at home. I didn't really know what to do half of the time! We finally just went to bed and I actually didn't sleep any worse than usual! (that doesn't necessarily mean I slept very well though;)) I woke up on my own at 6:00, (which is good because I set my alarm but forgot to turn it on, oopsies) and was eating some toast for breakfast when I got a phone call from the hospital saying they were way way busy and to call back at 9:00 and see if they are less busy. UGGGG! More waiting. We decided that probably the more sleep we could get the better so we went back to bed and I called them at 9 and they were still busy!! They said that they would call me when they were ready but they didn't know when that would be. Thanks guys! So Rusty and I went for a walk, but my sciatic nerve pain and incesive waddling cut that short, so we went home and played some card games to pass the time. I finally decided to go and lay down for a little while and as soon as my head hit the pillow my phone rang and it was time!!!
We got to the hospital and wandered around trying to figure out where to go (we were way less crazy prepared this time around. We didn't even do a hospital tour) and got checked in. I laid in bed waiting to be started for about an hour while we waited for blood tests and started having pretty strong contractions all on my own (I attribute it to all my cleaning. Maybe we would have had a baby pretty soon anyway??? maybe?) My tests all came back ok. Not bad like last time and they said I could have an epidural:) but the nurse said that it was probably a good thing we were having this baby today.
So here's the timeline
12:30ish they started me on petocion which made me so so SO cold and I got to be wrapped up in the microwaved blankets which was oh so nice.
1:30ish I had gone from almost a 2 to 4cm in an hour so Doc broke my water.
2:30ish I was given an epidural. Just hanging out with Rusty still trying to decide on a name and where we want to go for our summer vacation. So much more relaxed than with Conner!
3:30 Nurse checked me again and I was a a 7! super fast! She said she'd be back in 30 min to check on me again.
4:00 I hadn't pushed the panic extra epidural button yet but I was starting to be able to feel contractions pretty strong and I figured that I had a few more hours left so I pushed the button. The nurse came in a few minutes later and checked me and oh lookie, I'm at a 10 and her head is just right there! No wonder I was starting to feel the contractions! Time to call the Doc!
4:18 after only pushing through 2 contractions (about 6 pushes) little Sophie joined our family!
We got a pic of Conner on the scale and Rusty loved that so he wanted one for Sophie as well. Turns out that Rusty's not allowed to take pictures just after his baby is born. They get kind of crazy. |
Her first bath. Since I wasn't there for it I was told that she LOVED it. and Still does. Every time I wash her hair her eyes roll back into her head. |
Conner came to visit that night. He loves his Sophie. |
Getting ready to leave the hospital! |
And that's the story!
Here are some answers to quick questions I know everyone has!
Is she a good baby? Why yes she is! She is so content pretty much all of the time. Even when she wakes up to eat she never really cries, she just grunts and wines a little bit. She is a little angel!
Now that you've had both, would you get an epidural again? Oh my goodness YES!!! I was a little nervous just because I had never had one and was even thinking for a second that maybe I wouldn't since I had already done it with out one but once the contractions really set in I was thinking "how the crap did I do this last time?" and changed my mind pretty fast. It really wasn't that bad getting it. The worst part was the numbing shot. But really it made the whole experience so much better! I remember being so exhausted by the time Conner came. I was literally falling asleep between contractions. I can't really remember a whole lot about anything but since I wasn't falling asleep this time around I can still hear her first cry and I remember the very surreal experience holding her for the first time and crying when her little fingers grasped mine. It was what every girl pictures holding her newborn would be like and I just didn't get that with Conner...at least I don't remember it very well. Probably my only regret is that I pushed that stupid power boost button 15 min before pushing so I couldn't feel ANYTHING and they had to tell me when I was having a contraction. But all in all it was so much easier. I told Rusty that after Conner's labor and delivery I felt like we cheated with this one! I could have 20 more babies like this (no, I am not having 20 more babies)
How is Conner doing? He's doing fantastic! He loves his little sister and isn't TOO jealous. every once in a while he'll start dancing around or scream at the top of his lungsfor attention but nothing too bad. If anything he loves her a little TOO much. I feel like my days are spent protecting her from his hugs and kisses.
How did you finally decide on a name? Ok, so I went back and forth forever on names and could never fully decide. I have loved the name Sophie for a long long time. Since before Conner was ever born and before the name exploded on the charts. But then I'd tell people what we were thinking of naming her and 7/10 times people were like "oh that's popular" even though I've only met one other Sophie in my life. So I came up with an alternative that I liked a lot too but I didn't tell very many people because I didn't want to hear their nice advice about it. But now that she's here and has a name the other one was Jocelyn. One day I'd be like "her name is Jocelyn. I know it" and the next day I'd say "No, actually it's Sophie" and I just couldn't decide.
We started asking Conner what names he liked and we say "do you like_____" and he'd say no to all of them. Then I asked if he liked Sophie and he said "yeah!" then whenever we asked if he liked a name "Conner, do you like 'Jessica'?" He'd reply "No! Yike Sophie" for the last monthish this was his response.
No my 2 year old's oppinion is not the reason she has her name. But it is a cute story! I think I secretly really liked Sophie a lot more than any other one because I kept coming back to it. Rusty said he knew that's the one I would pick.
Oh wow this ended up being a lot longer post than I intended! So I guess I'll be done!