This is my new sister. She weighs 7# and 10 ounces. She is 20 1/2″ long and does not have a name yet, but some of us think that her name should be Tara.  I think that Her name should be Patience because she didn’t cry when she was born and doesn’t cry very much.

She is very content and Perry loves her just as much as anyone else does. He is so protective. When she
(the baby) started to cry in her sleep for just a minute, he came running over and said: “Baby cry Mom, Baby cry” and started to look concerned. Mom told him that she (the baby) was fine and that she was just sleeping. I am glad that he is not jealous of her getting all of the attention.

Our new little girl still has no name.  If hubby and I could manage to wake up at the same time, maybe we could discuss the matter…

She was born at 8:07 AM, after about 7 hours of active labor – starting when I tried in vain to get some sleep last night.

She weighed in at 7 lbs, 10 oz. and is 20.5 inches long, placing her firmly on the small side in our family.

She seems quiet and alert, and didn’t want to cry at birth.  She was perfectly content to look around and watch the commotion that surrounded her arrival.

Her siblings are all predictably excited except The Boy, who is utterly in love but completely unsurprised.  Apparently he never doubted us when we told him there was a baby in Mom’s belly and he would be holding it soon.  He has plastered her with kisses at every chance, and comes thundering to her rescue at every unhappy sound.

I’m feeling fine, though of course I’m ever-so-glad to have the experience behind me.  The labor itself wasn’t bad, but the last hour or two was a lot more painful than I expected, and the actual delivery itself was, as always, The Worst Part.

I was up all night and have only dozed on and off for 2 hours today, so am more sleepy than anything else.

(at approximately 2 minutes old)

ITS A GIRL!!!!!!!!! ITS A GIRL!!!!!!!!! ITS A GIRL!!!!!!!!! ITS A GIRL!!!!!!!!! ITS A GIRL!!!!!!!!! ITS A GIRL!!!!!!!!! ITS A GIRL!!!!!!!!! ITS A GIRL!!!!!!!!! ITS A GIRL!!!!!!!!! ITS A GIRL!!!!!!!!! ITS A GIRL!!!!!!!!! ITS A GIRL!!!!!!!!! ITS A GIRL!!!!!!!!! ITS A GIRL!!!!!!!!!

The Midwife has  been here for a while and Dad said about twenty minutes ago that Mom is about ready to  push.

Don’t you wish that you were here to welcome the new baby instead of having to wait for pictures?

actually the suspense is about the same here.

-Deanna

kaitlyn here i have been faking sleep for about 1-2 hours.

The midwife got here about 10 minutes ago.

it wont be long now….

…but all is well.

contractions are holding steady a 3 minutes and growing longer.

This maybe the last update for a while. I need to go rub her back.

(…about blogging; what did YOU think I was talking about)

“I’m feeling surprisingly ambivalent” (about posting)

KimC  – just after a strong contraction (they’re about 3 minutes apart now)

THe midwife is on the way and Kim is in the pool.

Contractions are hard enough to be difficult to talk through…(I hope the midwife gets here in time!)

once she hits 5 minutes there is usually less than a couple of hours left – and the midwife is an hour away.

But now they really hurt.  The midwife will be hearing from us as soon as hubby is out of the bathroom.  The pool is filling, and I have no intention of waiting til it’s full to get in.

Bed was NOT more comfortable, and I had a doozy of a contraction in there.  In spite of that, hubby didn’t stir even when I jiggled him, flipped on the overhead light, and called the midwife.

I told her she didn’t need to come out yet – I just needed assurance that she wasn’t 4 hours away at another birth.  But I felt shaky while I was on the phone.  Was it from the pain of the previous contraction, or is it possible that I’m already nearing transition?  I feel foolishly optimistic for even posing the question, but I can’t help wondering.

Now I’m sipping nasty chalky-tasting liquid calcium straight from the bottle, rolling up my proverbial sleeves to go get hubby up and moving.  The poor man is tired after several late nights in a row, but there’s work to be done!

Ow.  Ow.  Ow.  I want hot water in that pool, and I want it now.  Ow.  breathe…breathe…that’s better…

4:02 AM

Call me silly, but I’m heading back to bed.  It’s 3:24 AM.  I have no illusions of sleep, but am hoping to get a little more comfortable.

I’m also secretly hoping that hubby will wake up as I crawl into bed, ask how I am, and then he can decide if and when to panic and sound the alarm.

I went to bed, but sleep just isn’t happening.  As soon as my head hit the pillow, contractions started coming every 7-10 minutes.  After an hour and a half of trying, I finally realized they are just too strong to sleep through.  I’ll be just dozing off as the next one hits me and owww! I’m wide awake again.  The last few were creeping down toward 6-8 minutes apart instead of 7-10, and gradually getting more intense.

I hate to call my midwife at this hour, especially if I should stall out again.  I guess I’ll wait a bit before I wake up hubby and let him decide.  I have a feeling that things will come to a screeching halt if any of the children wake up too – it just doesn’t seem like time to sound the alarm yet.

I’m not ready to call it a false alarm, but I’m certainly not going anywhere quickly.  I’ve had mild contractions off and on all day, never much closer than 15 minutes apart, and never much more intense than the standard-issue Braxton Hicks variety.

But I’ve been feeling just a little crampy all day and have had a few slightly stronger contractions at 12 minute intervals, so maybe things will pick up during the night.  Or maybe I’ll putter through tomorrow with very little progress and deliver right on my due date Saturday.

Or maybe this will prove to be a false alarm and I won’t have the baby for another 8 days.  I was reviewing my last labor and had entirely forgotten that it happened that way – we even went so far as to call the midwife that time!

By the way, I went back and created a separate category for all my live-blog labor posts with The Boy, so they can be read without sifting through all 124 June 2006 posts.  I guess I did my nesting project today on the blog.