Camille

I was lucky enough to catch Camille with her eyes open a few minutes ago. Isn't she pretty? She has a bit of a rash on her chin which I think is either from nursing or rubbing against her blanket when she's rooting. She has a very strong sucking reflex.

She's Here!

Let me introduce you to Mia Camille (Camille), born December 17th at 3:55 p.m.

For those interested in the birth story, read on. For those who are not, she's beautiful and healthy and we're so glad she's here.

So they started me on the pitocin just after 9:30 a.m. Things were progressing pretty slowly for the first several hours. At one point my nurse, Becky (the most phenomenal labor and delivery nurse on the planet!), thought she probably wouldn't see our baby before her shift change at 7:00 p.m.

The anesthesiologist did my epidural around 2:00 and things seemed to pick up after that. Unfortunatly, it only worked on my right side. They had me shift over to my left side in hopes that gravity would help. The anesthesiologist also came in and adjusted the catheter but that didn't help either. So, unfortunately, I can't say that my delivery was pain-free, but that probably wasn't a realistic expectation anyway. The epidural was very helpful, even on one side. I would estimate the pain of childbirth as one tenth what it was with my other deliveries (especially 10 lb Jolie!) so I don't have much to complain about.

About 17 minutes before Camille was born she made a sudden move. My nurse lost her heartbeat and had to move the monitor down on my belly. Just minutes after that, I could feel a lot of pressure and I knew she was almost here. My nurse ran to the hall and yelled for them to page my doctor. He came in dressed in his street clothes and asked if I could wait for him to change into his scrubs. Another benefit of the epidural! There is no way I would have waited for him if I'd not had the epidural. I only had to push through three contractions and she was here! Yea!

Dan and my mom were both in the delivery room througout the day. I think we all agreed that despite all the worry and angst leading up to my delivery, it was the easiest of all four. There were no problems with my heart and I was SO well taken care of at the U, it was unbelievable. My nurse was with me from 9:30 until 5:30 and hardly left my room through the whole thing. With Jolie and Gavin I was literally begging for someone to come in and check me as my labor progressed and I had the feeling that I'd been abandoned.

So here are the stats: 7 lb 12 oz.; 20 1/4" long; a bit of darkish hair and cloudy blue eyes. She is a very pretty baby and so far her favorite past times are eating, sleeping and pooping. I'm not sure whom she looks like, some say Gavin. From the nose down she definitely looks like Dan. All my babies have had Dan's lips and chin when they were born. Ofcourse there's always hope that her looks will change!

Tomorrow's the Day!

Just a quick post before I go to bed and hopefully get some sleep. Tomorrow's the big day. We'll be headed to the hospital in the morning right after we get Tristan and Jolie off to school. I've spent the weekend getting all our ducks in a row: working on school projects, typing up schedules and routines for those who will be here while I'm in the hospital, doing laundry, depositing money in the kids' lunch accounts, paying bills, organizing, picking up he house... and I finally just now packed a few things for the hospital.

I'm both anxious and excited. Truthfully, I'm a lot more anxious than anything right now. There's something about having done this before that makes me that way (i.e. I know what I'm in for...) Plus I have more to worry about this time. I'm being followed as high risk and I'll be wired up like a Christmas tree (EKGs and heart monitors). I'm also going to have an epidural. I should be looking forward to experiencing less pain than the last three times but somehow the epidural really has me scared. I hope that I know when the time is right, that I can get through the procedure without passing out, and that it will offer the sea of tranquility that it's supposed to. Everyone tells me that it's no big deal; I wish I could believe them.

On the bright side, we should have a sweet little baby girl sometime tomorrow afternoon! Can't wait for that!

Rambling thoughts from someone who laid awake all night

I spent the day wrapping gifts and doing the last of my Christmas preparations. My mom, who I'm sure has sensed my stress and anxiety over the last couple of days, offered to take Gavin so that I could get some of this done. I even sloughed off a PTA meeting at Jolie's school in order to make the most of my time (I hope they forgive me).

I've been feeling a bit... overwhelmed... trying to handle the already insane Christmas season as well as getting ready to have a baby on Monday. The toughest part is that daily life occupies at least 90% of my time. How can a person do anything "extra" when their life is consumed with working, entertaining an insecure three year old, cooking, cleaning, answering phone calls, mountains of laundry, hosting three-year-old playgroup, volunteering in the classroom, driving carpool, making playdough figures for 3rd grade diaramas, checking division problems, listening to Jolie read Junie B. Jones, making cookies for the neighbor's funeral, preparing for Friday's den meeting, refereeing sword fights between someone wanting to fight and someone trying to do math homework, and sweeping up spilled cereal?

And yes, next week we add a newborn to the mix...

But at least tonight there's a chance I might actually get some sleep because I know that my Christmas gifts are wrapped and ready to go. We'll worry about the rest next week.

Baby C.

OK, apparently the sarcasm of my last post (baby names) didn't come through to some. It's a joke, people! There's no way I'd give a kid any of those awful names. (No offense to anyone named Jesusa). I just thought I'd lighten things up a bit given that the poor child has to be born within a few days of Christmas.

I have an update about baby C: You may have noticed that 7 days have magically slipped off my countdown. D-day is now December 17th. I saw Dr. E. yesterday and my exam revealed that I've made some progress since my last visit. I wasn't surprised as I spent part of Sunday night/Monday morning wondering if I might soon be on my way to the hospital. I had some pretty hard contractions that woke me up. Dan was already at work and I realized it might be a good idea to have a plan in place just in case I actually go into labor on my own this time. Most intelligent people would already have a plan, but remember that twice I've been induced past my due date. Once you've been down that road you put the other alternative out of your mind (you have to or you'd go crazy).

So the long and the short is this: I'm scheduled for an induction at 7:30 am on December 17th if nothing happens earlier. Dr. E. is willing to wait but I'm terribly concerned that things might happen on their own just in time for me to spend Christmas morning in the hospital. I didn't truly realize what a bummer this would be until last week when we started putting up Christmas decorations. Suddenly I was overcome with sadness at the thought of missing the kids on Christmas morning. Parents spend the whole year toiling away, disciplining their children and saying "no" sixty times a day; Christmas morning is one rare moment when we can sit back and enjoy the fruits of our labors. We get to witness their joy and happiness, thier wonder and excitement, all the while knowing that WE helped make it happen... and who wants to miss that?

Please vote for your favorite baby name!

As you can see by the countdown at the right as well as the photo of my belly which is now resembling a bowling ball, the big day is quickly approaching. It seems there are two big questions on everyone's mind:

1. When is this baby is going to make her appearance?
2. What are we going to name her?

Since I have no control over question number one (much to my chagrin), I thought I would shed some light on question number two. Dan and I have had many discussions about appropriate names for our baby. Here are our favorites:

Holly
Noel
Jesusa (pronounced hey-su-sa)
and my personal favorite, Carolyn... because that's what you do on Christmas, you go a-Carolyn!

Please vote for your favorite in the comment section of this blog. I'll be checking back here daily until I either pop or my doctor finally decides to give me the needle.

Let's Go Bowling!

We celebrated Tristan's birthday on Friday. We've learned over the years that the week of Christmas is no time to celebrate a kid's birthday. I'll never forget the year he turned three and I was so excited to have a party with his friends. Not a single solitary child could come. We ended up going to McDonalds with Grandpa and Grandma and Aunt Lisa.

Due to the season and the nature of 8 year old boys, we decided to have our party somewhere other than my house. I learned that lesson at Tristan's 6 year old Army party in which chaos, mayhem and destruction ensued.

The bowling party was a hit. We had 11 kids, including Gavin and Jolie. The boys were able to be their loud, wild, crazy selves and it was fun. We bowled, ate these cupcakes that I saw in a fancy cookbook at Sur la Table, and opened presents. We gave prizes to the kids who ended up with the highest and lowest scores. Gavin, by the way, bowled two strikes. Thank goodness for gutter guards!

Oh and thank goodness for Grandma, Dan and Aunt Lisa who helped me with the party. I don't think it would have been quite the success without them.