"I can swing!"

Cecilia has finally mastered how to pump her legs on the swings all by herself!  She is so proud of her self, and I am too!  I finally just clicked for her.  Swings were so frustrating for her for so long, and it was one of those things that you can only teach for so long, then they just have to figure it out for themselves.  It is now her favorite thing to do outside.  I love it too, because it gives me freedom from pushing her on the swings too ;)

Newborn Pictures

 I couldn't wait to take my little Nora's newborn photos.  The recommended time frame for such photos is 7-10 days new.  These were taken on day 6 of Nora's life.  My big girls participated beautifully too.  They were pretty excited to do the "Sister Stack" and to snuggle their new baby sister.

I love these girls so much!!

 

Happy 30th Birthday, Jon!!

My wonderful husband turned the big 3-0 this year.  Given our recent addition to the family, and with Nora's birthday being only 10 days before Jon's, a large celebration was somewhat out of the question.  I picked up a blueberry pie at a local bakery and we celebrated as a family on Jon's birthday.

I was feeling somewhat guilty about not doing anything for my love's big day though, so I decided to throw a simple backyard party for him.  It was what he wanted from the beginning, and I would have liked to have had a little more flare to it, but it was a perfect celebration with family and friends.

I'm pretty lucky to have such and easy going guy.  Its really amazing to think that I've known Jon for half his life, and been his girlfriend for almost half his life.  I like to reflect on how much we've grown together and I love to celebrate where we are at this big milestone.  I'm so proud of Jon at age 30.  He has become a wonderful man, committed husband, loving father, reliable and hard worker, and an overall great person.  I love you, Jon!!  Happy Birthday!

Visitors at the Hospital and at Home

Because Nora was born on Labor Day weekend, much of our family was out of town and we actually had very few visitors at the hospital.  Nora's big sisters were her most frequent visitors, along with Mammaw and Pops.  They came three times to check her out.  Cecilia was very interested in the stethoscope, and she watched very intently when the pediatrician came to exam Nora.  It reminded me of when Lilly was born and Cecilia found the stethoscope.  The big sisters also got to have a "Sibling Celebration" at the hospital.  They opened presents from Jon and I, aprons with their names on them, and the hospital sent up cupcakes and apple juice for them.

Uncle Nick and Aunt Megan were Nora's first visitors.  Grandma Cheryl and my friend Amanda and her little girl Savannah also visited us.  Funny story about Savannah:  When she was born, I visited Amanda in the hospital and said "there is a good chance our babies will be exactly 9 months apart." They are 9 months and 1 day apart.  

  

For the most part, our time in the hospital was very relaxing.  I love those first few days in the hospital with a new baby.  New snuggles, new baby smell, just being together as mom, dad, and baby.  

We headed home on Monday afternoon.  Nora's sisters were smitten with her and wanted to help me with her first bath.  They were very sweet with Nora, although slightly nerve racking for me to have two very eager and "helpful" little's and a tiny and not-so-excited-about-the-bath-idea baby.

  

Nora's fan club started showing up on Tuesday.  Family and friends came to visit, including Grandma Katy and Grandpa Jim, Ma & Aunt Jackie, Grandad, Aunt Jenny, Uncle Pete and family, Grandma Mary, and many more.  Many of the visitors have come bearing gifts and many have come bearing food.  It was such a blessing to have meals brought to us.  I have not had to cook in over a month because of the amazingly generous people in our community that have provided dinner for our family.

Just in time for the Floods

We got an insane amount of rain over the last week.  Flooding has been going on all over the Denver area.  The park at the end of our street has been in the process of getting renovated because the creek that runs through it was due for the 100 year flood.  Construction crews have been working to widen the creek bed and they also removed 4ft. of dirt in the entire park to create a new flood plain.  They finished this just in time because that 100 year flood, it came.  If this park hadn't be done, many of the houses in our neighborhood would have been flooded, big time.  The new creek bed and flood plain did exactly what it was supposed to do.  These pictures were taken on Thursday, the water levels were at the highest on Friday though.  We are so thankful that we were not directly affected, nor do we know anyone that was.  Also, lucky for me, Jon's office was closed on Thursday and Friday due to the flooding, so I got extra help at home :)

Nora Louise: The Birth Day

WARNING:  Long post.  Contains tasteful photos of Nora being born.

After 42 weeks of pregnancy, Jon and I welcomed a beautiful baby girl into our family on August 31, 2013 at 6:37pm.  Nora Louise Fries was born and weighed in at a hefty 8lbs 10 oz and 21 inches long.

I patiently waited for her birth, hoping my body would figure out what to do in the medically allotted time of 42 weeks before having to be induced.  No such luck though.  So at about 10:45pm on 8/30, Jon and I headed to the hospital for induction.

After being checked at about 11:30pm, there was no change to my cervix from the last two weeks.  I was 3cm dialated, 50% effaced, long, and baby was at a -2 station.  In other words, not in any type of hurry to come out and meet us.  The good news was that I was in some type of labor.  I was contracting about every 6-8 minutes, so at least my body was trying to do something.  I was given a dose of Misoprostal, which is a cervical softening agent, and attempted to go to sleep.  I was way to anxious to sleep, and my contractions started to get stronger and closer together around 2:30am.  Jon was fast asleep, and the contractions weren't strong enough to warrant waking him.  Plus, I would have had to throw something, like a water bottle, across the room to actually wake him up.  I found myself clinging to the side of the hospital bed and saying a Hail Mary through each contraction.  The nurse checked me again at 4am.  Good news: 3.5cm!  Still 50% effaced, long, and baby was at a -2 station, but some change.  I got another dose of the Miso at 5am, and continued my Hail Mary's.

I was able to shower in the morning, and around 8:30 my nurse said that the L&D rooms were completely full, and they were only supposed to have one C-Section that morning and now they had 5.  They had to call in an extra anesthesiologist who was only going to be available for an epidural until 10am, so if I wanted an epidural, it was now or probably never.  I was leaning toward the epidural, but wanted to get checked again to see if maybe my body had labored enough to at least be able to break my water.  A check again at 9AM showed NO CHANGE.  Ugh.  Ok, Uterus, let's get the show on the road.  Epidural was placed by 9:30, and Pitocin started right after that.

This is the part of my labor I call spa relaxation labor.  It was the most relaxing day I've had in a long time.  I took a nap, played my stupid game on the iPad, conversed with my husband, took a nap, you get the idea.  My midwife came in at 2:30 to check me again and I had finally progressed enough to have my water broken.  I was 5cm dilated, and the most important part was that baby had dropped enough to make it safe.  She broke my water and I was immediately nauseated and threw up.  My contractions increased instantly and went from about 4 minutes apart to 2-3 minutes apart.  I couldn't feel any of this, of course, but the monitor showed it.  My parents and grandparents were notified of my progress and arrived at the hospital around 4pm.  We also had a surprise visit from our friends Emily and Shawn, who I have not seen since I visited them in Houston in February.  They have since moved back, and are expecting their own little bundle!  Life has been busy, and I am so glad that we did get a "belly" picture of Emily and I, even though I don't look my best.

I started to feel really weird around 4:30.  The shakes had started, I was light headed and just not right.  The monitor was no longer showing the nice rhythm of contractions, instead it was all over the place.  The midwives shift at 5pm, so Wendy left, and Jules came on.  Jules checked me at about 5:20, and said I was at 9cm!  YAY!  It was at this moment that it all felt real.  Finally!  I really was going to have this baby.  I really was not going to be pregnant forever.

At about 6:20pm I started to feel a lot of pressure, and knew it was time.  The room flooded with nurses. Jon gloved up to catch.  My legs were hoisted, and pushing began.  I think I pushed through three contractions.  I remember saying after one set of pushes and starting to feel really uncomfortable with baby's position "I want you out!!"  At 6:37pm, Tater Tot was born!  Jon caught her, and scrambled to see if we had a baby boy or a baby girl.  That moment felt like 10 minutes to me.  He announced "I think we have a girl."  I was in total shock!  "WHAT!?!?"

-----Ok, ok, I have a side story here.  It is kind of important.----

So, at my 34 week appointment, I had both girls with me.  We were waiting in the exam room when midwife Patti came in and the conversation went like this:

Patti: Your girls are so cute, and now your having a boy!
Me:  I am?!?!?
Patti: You didn't know?
Me:  No, but I guess now I do.
Patti: Oh my gosh, I can't believe I just said that!
Me:  How do you know?  Are you sure??
Patti: (flipping through my chart, and then burying her head in her arms) Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry!  I can't believe I said that!

The rest of the appointment was basically her apologizing to me over and over again.  I left feeling a wave of emotions.  I didn't want to know this.  I didn't want this information, and the worst part was that I was the only person that knew now.  I called Jon and told him what had happened, but not what the gender was.  He said he didn't want to know.  GREAT!  I called a girlfriend and told her, and thankfully was able to tell her the whole story, including the "boy" part.  It felt good to get that off my chest.  Jon did let me tell him that night.  I called the midwives office the next morning and asked how she knew it was a boy, and if there was any proof via ultrasound pictures in my file.  They said it was written in the ultrasound report, but the two pictures from the ultrasound marked "gender" were inconclusive.  So, at this point, we were 85% convinced it was a boy.  But we opted not to tell anyone because we didn't see anything and there was a possibility it was a typo.  Usually when you don't want to know the gender, they mark your chart "deferred".  This sent me into a tailspin of mental gymnastics.  I thought from day one of this pregnancy that baby was a girl.  So, to hear that we were having a boy was a shock.  We had hardly discussed boy names, the thought of raising a son caused some anxiety for me, for some reason.  All the "boy" things like, boy sounds, smells, toys, clothes, etc. caused me to really think about the change that would happen in our house.  This mistake made by Patti caused a huge stir in the office too.  I guess there was some kind of a meeting at the practice I go to even.  Patti did feel so bad.  Bad enough that she sent me a $50 spa gift certificate.

-----End Important Side Story-----

SHOCK!  Total shock!  Jules, Jon, and I were in complete shock!  A GIRL!  What?!?!?  Patti said we were having a BOY!  Ok, end mental gymnastics about a boy, now I had to do a different type of mental flipping because we had a girl.  THREE girls!  I was so ready and excited to have son at this point.  It did take a few hours (maybe even a whole day) to really get it through my head that I have another beautiful girl.

Never the less, she was beautiful and perfect.  So much dark hair on her head!  Her fingernails were insanely long too.  I guess thats what an extra two weeks will do.  She also waited to relieve her bowels until she was out (unlike her sisters), so I was able to hold her and wait for the cord to stop pulsing before they took her over to the warming table to check her out and clean her off.  Her cord was very short though.  Amazing she was able to even flip so much with such a short cord.  She was perfect!

The next shock was when they put her on the scale.  8lbs, 10oz!  I think my words were "Are you sure your scale is calibrated correctly, and are you sure she is a she?!?!" Lilly Jeanne was 8lbs 7oz, so I've carried an 8.5lb baby before.  This baby did not feel that big.  Even all of the midwives thought she would have been in the mid to high sevens.

As Nora was getting checked out, I was hemorrhaging, like I do.  Only this time, I only lost 800ml of blood.  That is really good compared to the 2000ml I lost with Cecilia, and the 1600ml I lost with Lilly Jeanne.  I chalk this up to the "spa labor".  The midwife and the nurses were so prepared for my bleeding shenanigans and they were able to get it under control very quickly.

My big girls were at home with my sister-in-law, Aunt Megan, waiting for the news.  They arrived at the hospital shortly after Nora was born to meet their new sister.  They were so cute and so excited.  I was so glad to have them with us.  They wanted to see her tiny legs and tiny arms.  Lilly Jeanne asked if I had diapers for her.  Cecilia kept saying "I like her!"  They both wished her a Happy Birthday too.

I have to say, I am not disappointed in myself or my body for not being able to birth a baby naturally.  Rather, I am proud of myself for recognizing that my body needs some extra guidance and help to safely bring children into this world.  This labor and delivery was so easy compared to my first two experiences, and it was much safer for me and the baby.  Nora was not stressed in womb, hence, no meconium.  My blood loss was much much less because I did not let my body labor for 40+ hours.  Not to mention, there was no vision loss and emergency MRI like with Lilly Jeanne.  Instead I opted to let my body labor and let my mind rest and not fight it.  I am so so thankful for medical technology and the ability to use it.  I'm pretty certain that 100 years ago, or even in a part of the world today where these technologies are not available, I would not have survived childbirth, and my baby may not have either.  So, should we be blessed to have more children, I will probably opt for spa labor again.  And I'm really ok with that.