We have a girl in the house... besides me! And she's been here for more than a month already, so I realized it's time to write out her story, before I start forgetting things. Yes, it's
very long and yes there are plenty of details.
Apparently we were "All Ready" for her arrival way back around July 11th, but she had other plans. July was a rather longish month. Grandma arrived on the 18th to be here and help out for the birth. With a due date of July 24th, and actual births 12 days early, and 6-11 days late, we weren't sure what to expect. Grandma was hoping for the 19th or so, most were hoping for right around the due date (which happened to be Michael's 3rd birthday), I was hoping for August, but realistically thinking it would be sometime closer to the due date.
Thankfully, we joined the YMCA this summer in order to be able to use the outdoor pool. It's a very nice waterpark, with one of those bucket dumping, water playground areas for little kids, a 6 lane lap pool with 2 slides off the back corner and an additional, deep pool with 2 slides with steep drops. Mostly, we hung out in the playground area... maximum depth less than 2 feet. By mid-July, even Daniel was all over the place there and sliding down pretty much all the slides in that area. Blaise taught himself, or rather practiced what he already knew, gliding and floating on his stomach and back in the shallow water. Scott worked himself up to actual swimming in the "big" lap pool and eventually made it almost all the way across the 6 lanes, so I would let him do the slides. He loved the slides. I think we are all looking forward to next summer and getting back to the pool. This summer, I was just thankful for the water and we definitely got our money's worth out of our membership by heading to the pool several times a week. Unfortunately, this did not produce a baby.
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| This is what the pool does to Daniel. |
I typically have all my gender dreams near the end of pregnancy. This time was no different. And so far, including this time, it's been the last one that was right. The day after Grandma arrived, I dreamed it was a girl, but I wasn't present for the birth. Interesting, I know. I pretty much threw that one out the window instantly. Next night I dreamed it was a boy, but Cullen wasn't present, so we didn't look at the gender til he finally came in a while after the baby was born. Then a few days later (maybe even a week later), I dreamed the baby was born with her legs crossed and when we pulled her one leg up we could see she was a girl. I didn't mention that one to anybody at the time... but my last gender dream, right near the birthday continues to be right.
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| Michael's 3rd birthday, blowing out the candles. |
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| The kid table, Michael's best friend Jackson (and Scott's best friend Carly). |
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| And of course, there were plenty of presents. |
We celebrated Michael's birthday with a small party with our good friends, then celebrated again on his birthday with dinner at Cheesecake Factory. As part of the summer reading program, our library brings in performers each week for a show and we made it to the last show at the library. We were still home to eat lunch (which turned into dinner, because it was too crowded at lunchtime) at Chic-fil-A on August 1st. Believe it or not, we are fans of traditional marriage, oh and also the first ammendment.
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| Chic-fil-A, this was actually taken early in July on Cow Appreciation day. |
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| Blaise pretending to be a turtle under the laundry basket, after a library show by the SC Aquarium. |
Ah, we arrived at August. Grandma was a bit frustrated at this point, beginning to wonder if she was even going to get to meet the baby after being here helping out (huge huge help as she was cooking, shopping, and doing laundry for me) for more than 2 weeks. Friday rolled around (August 3rd) and I had to have an ultrasound, and non-stress test to check on the baby. Everything looked great (plenty of fluid, baby was active, I was soft and 3cm dilated) and I was pleasantly surprised that the DOCTOR (I usually see a midwife) was okay with us waiting a few more days for the baby to make an entrance. She did say we couldn't go past 42 weeks though, so we looked at the on-call schedule and we picked Monday August 6th, which was 13 days past the due date for induction (the same midwife who delivered Michael was on-call that day, so I knew she knew what I wanted.) The office was supposed to call me over the weekend and give me a time to come in. They didn't. We contemplated what to do if Monday happened to roll around without a baby and continued hoping and praying that Baby El would just decide it was time.
Grandpa had arrived on Friday and he decided that they could stay through Tuesday morning, to meet the baby and keep the boys during the birth. That was the whole point of Grandma's long trip after all.
Monday arrived. No baby, or real signs that it would be anytime soon. We decided to just go to the hospital, rather than call the office and ask about it... and I took my time getting up and out the door. I was glad I did. We got to the hospital around 8:30am. They didn't have us on their schedule, so we waited in the waiting area for a good half hour or so. They talked to Tina (the midwife) and she knew exactly who I was and had me sent back to triage. Figuring they would at least monitor us for a little while and make sure everything still looked good. After I'd been on the monitor a little while, Tina came in to check me- still the same 3cm dilated. They didn't actually have a room available right then, but they informed me that they would just keep me, because I was so late. After some hour or so on the monitor, they let me off and let me walk around... I realized the Olympics were on and there was a TV available, only to be disappointed that the only thing on was Water Polo- yeah, not really what I was interested in. We ended up doing a lot of reading (we enjoy the Harry Potter movies, and Cullen's never read the books, so I'm reading them to him right now). We walked the hospital a few times too. It continues to amaze me that EVERY time I have been to that hospital (this was our 5th birth there, and they've been separated by 2 years or less each time) it's different. This was the biggest change and there was plenty for Cullen to take pictures of... since he's an architect in the healthcare field, he's constantly taking pictures of doctor's offices and hospitals as we happen to visit them. During all the waiting around in triage, one of the nurses actually made a comment to me about all the people who were going to go into labor because of the weather and come in, making them even more crowded. All I could think of was, "You mean like ME! Hello, I'm 13 days past the guess day."
12:30pm rolls around and we're still in triage, so Cullen decided it was time to go get something for lunch. Naturally, 5 minutes after he left they had a room for us. I headed down the hall and started to get settled. They put me back on the monitors and started doing all the paperwork. Cullen came back with lunch, we ate... more paperwork and signing extra things that I didn't like having to sign. They had to put some kind of IV connector in and leave it there when they did my blood work, just in case. Then I had to sign off on having an epidural, just in case. And of course, signing off on the cervigel they were going to use first. See, they know, even if they refuse to admit it that one intervention DOES lead to another, and another, and another, etc.
Another funny... as we were waiting for Tina to come in to put the cervigel in, I was in the bed with a blanket over me, because it's really cold there. As Tina came in, Cullen looks at the blanket and says, "Hm, that's weird, looks like your laundry service made a mistake." The blanket had the Novant logo on it (for the other hospital system in the area) rather than the CMS "Tree of life". Well, Tina thought that was too much and actually pulled out another blanket, so she could take that one to the management. It was just really funny, as I doubt anyone else would have even noticed.
Moving along, 1:15ish, Tina came in and actually put the cervigel in, at which point I had to lay on my side in the bed on the monitors for 45 minutes. The interesting part of this whole experience was being on the monitors for so long. The Braxton-Hicks contractions I was having when I came in were registering around 20 on the monitor. As soon as the cervigel went in the contractions started registering 50-80, and higher. Cullen had fun observing the monitor and feeling like he actually had some idea of what was going on. Made me realize how out of the loop I'm sure he's felt at the other births when I was just in my zone and he had no real way of knowing what was going on. But I still prefer the other way... laboring mostly at home without monitors.
After my 45 minutes was up they took me off the monitors and I was free to move around as much as I wanted. I'm not into walking the hallways when I'm really in labor. I read a few more chapters, then got up and paced the room, repeat... I was missing my computer desk to lean on during the contractions, so Cullen had to stand in. I don't think he minded. He sang a couple of old RUF songs (very calming.)
Around 4pm Tina came back in to check me and break my water. She said she expected things to go quickly after that and wouldn't leave the room. I was 7cm. She broke my water. Baby was face up so she suggested that I lay on one side for a few contractions, then turn over and lay on the other side for a few contractions to encourage the baby to turn. Then she left the room?!
I was on my left side for a little bit. The nurse told me to roll over, and my first contraction on my right side I thought, hmmm feels a little like pushing. Second contraction on my right side and I told Cullen it feels like pushing. He relayed the message. Tina came back in the room. She said go ahead and push and told me I could sit up if I wanted to and of course she finished getting everything ready. I did. She checked me, said I was complete and that she could already see baby. Next contraction, one real push and baby was out- face-up, no tearing. Face-up means I got to see first that it was a girl. (It's also a little more work, but she was easy compared to my other face-up baby, Michael, I think I was in the right position to help things along this time.) She came right up onto my chest and I got to cut the cord. Then she snuggled with me for an hour before getting poked and prodded and all that. After the poking and prodding, her daddy finally got his hands on her and I'm pretty sure she owns him already.
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| She didn't want to come out yet, and she's sure she'd rather be back in, where it's not so bright and cold. |
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| Planning Daddy-Daughter dates already? |
We called Scott first. He was busy... outside on the porch playing in the water table, so Cullen got to announce on speaker phone to all the boys and Grandma and Grandpa at the same time. The story goes... the boys went crazy with excitement jumping up and down and throwing water everywhere. Yes, they are thrilled to have a sister! We decided they could come visit briefly before bed and meet her.
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| Daniel was excited to see us. |
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| Blaise wanted to be the first to hold her- he was. |
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| Michael, also excited to hold her. |
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| Scott, serious, as usual, but totally in love. |
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| Family of 7. |
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| Tell me again, how do I have a girl? |
RoseMarie Hope was born at 4:46pm on August 6, 2012, with a very full head of thick dark hair. She weighed in at 8lbs 4oz, and measured 19 inches. She is named for my Grandma, who passed away in 2008. Her 4 big brothers came to meet her a little before 7pm. After that we tried to fill the announcement in with pictures and call people. I did a really crummy job of calling people this time... so please forgive me for not calling. I did remember to call my sister, who's very excited for her little girl to have a girl cousin so close in age (now if only they weren't moving out of the country.) We called my mom, who happened to be on her other phone with my Grandpa. Kind of sad, but his alzheimer's is bad enough now that he didn't understand at all. We called my Grandma Jill, who said she thought it would be a girl, which surprised me because she's the one who had 5 boys. Cullen called his grandparents too. His grandma was staying with his Uncle Buddy that weekend, so Aunt Laura answered the phone and said, "Hi Cullen, you want to talk to Grandma don't you." The story goes... she then stood there waiting like a puppy to get a feel for the news, then raced outside to the barn to tell Kelly and Uncle Buddy, screaming wildly. They all proceeded to run, screaming wildly into the house and Cullen got to talk to all of them in turn, except Aunt Laura, I guess she was too excited?! :) Really it's the friends we didn't remember to call... but we did get the announcement put together and emailed/posted to facebook before we fell asleep.
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| Sleeping... gotta snuggle with something. (Yes, I moved it right after I took the picture.) |
For
our team, we are mostly busy with the basics: Cullen's
still with RPA Design and loving his work, although there's currently a lot of it-
for which we are very thankful. Cynthia is teaching Scott and Blaise at
home. Not easy, but we do love being
together. Scott's in 1st grade, thriving
academically, and absolutely loves football.
He and his Papa (Cynthia's Dad), whom we said good-bye to in January as
he went home to heaven, would be having so much fun together. Blaise is our artist, he loves to draw and
make things. He's in Kindergarten, and also
thriving academically, though it's always amusing how we figure out how much he
knows. Michael, at 3, is a lot of fun. He loves sports, music, and pretty much all
of life. Smiley Daniel
just turned 2 and he'll be happy to tell you so. Just don't make him mad. We were all excited to welcome our baby GIRL
in early August, and we are all in love (and a bit of shock still - how did we
end up with a girl?!) RoseMarie is a happy, easy baby and
growing up so quickly already. Her
sweet smile is a good reminder for us to slow down and ponder that peace that
Christ brings as we celebrate Christmas. 
