This third pregnancy seemed to fly by. With a 3-year old and a 1-year to raise, it was often hard to take the time to slow down to linger on the growing life inside me. I don't mean to sound like I didn't dream about the little toes and a pretty tiny nose, but I think my babies take it easy on me in the womb. Okay, they kick the heck out of me and give me a backache and heartburn, but besides that my pregnancies have been a breeze.
This spring everyone seemed to be particularly busy. I'd get weekly reminders from family members... Remember, you can't have the baby on X,Y, or Z day, because I have so-and-so obligations on those days. Granted, everyone would tell me this mostly tongue-in-cheek. I figured that the baby wasn't listening anyway.
I had 9 more days, a to-do list a mile long, and an energy-level that was shrinking daily. Reed's birthday was around the corner. The evening of April 30th, I wrote my list for the next day. Clean the house, pack a hospital bag (yep, still hadn't done that yet!), make a birthday cake, wrap Reed's birthday presents, assemble Cora's tricycle (see previous post about why Cora is getting a tricycle on Reed's birthday.) That night I went to sleep with baby girls on my brain and as I woke up suddenly at 2 am to my water breaking, all I could think was 'Not yet!' and all the things on my list that needed to be done.
Bob was sleeping on the couch downstairs because I am a horrible pregnant snorer and he's a light sleeper. I collected myself enough to walk halfway down the stairs to inform Bob that my water broke. He popped up quickly saying, "Really?! ...You should not be using the stairs!" I'm not sure how I was going to get around that one.
I wasn't having contractions yet so I took a quick shower and Bob called his parents to come over. We frantically packed the hospital bags and my contractions had started and were picking up steam. We left the house a little bit before 3:30am and drove to Sherman Hospital. They quickly verified that my bag of waters had broken and that I was dilated to 3 cm. They set me up in my delivery room and contractions seemed to increase in intensity pretty quickly although they weren't completely regular yet. As the pain increased, the nurse and I were discussing the epidural. I didn't want it too soon to slow down labor but I also didn't want to miss my chance to get it. At 6:30 the nurse checked me again and I was at 4 cm. I told her I'd wait until the new anesthesiologist came on his/her shift in about an hour. At 7:30 am, the nurse walks in during a killer contraction and asks if I want it then, that the anesthesiologist has two c-sections being scheduled. I am thankful I jumped on it. Shortly after my epidural kicked in, my doctor pops in to check on us. I'm dilated to 8 cm. She and the nurse leave, presumably to get things ready. I'm not sure how much time passes and I tell Bob that we need to page the nurse and that I feel like I'm about to have the baby. A different nurse comes in and confirms I'm ready and says, don't push. My nurse and doctor file in and a few pushes later a beautiful, teeny tiny baby is laying across my chest.
As we all admired the baby for a moment, Bob says, "Is it a boy or girl?" No one had looked. Bob and Dr. Korzen announce simultaneously, "It's a girl!" Our little Katherine Erin had arrived at 8:56 am.
They let me cuddle and feed her for over an hour before they weighed her, cleaned her up, and checked her over. I really loved they are encouraging the skin-to-skin mommy/baby time first. I got to check her out before anyone else. They agreed that she was perfect.
She weighed 7
pounds, 2 ounces and was 20 inches long.
Reed and Cora meeting their new baby sister.
Can we hold her?
All along, Reed has wanted a brother and Cora has wanted a sister. When we discovered that we had a little girl, I wondered how Reed would respond. I think the two photos below summarize Reed's feeling for Kate pretty well.
Katherine is a family name from both Bob's family and mine. My great-grandmother (my mom's mom's mom) was Katherine, as well as Bob's great-grandmother (Bob's dad's dad's mom). Bob's mom's mom's sister and my dad's dad's sister were also Katherines. We plan to call her Kate for short.
I think the source of Erin is pretty obvious, but there is some tradition behind it. My grandma gave my mom her first name as a middle name, my mom gave me her name, and now I have continued the tradition by bestowing my name to Kate. I must admit that I feel a little vain but I do find tradition to be very meaningful.
Life has been a little hectic since we've been home. Kate didn't listen to anyone's requests to wait AT LEAST until her due date on May 10th. This is finals week for Bob (and my dad) and so I've had some alone time with the three kids already, but we all survived. Kate, thankfully, is still in the wonderful sleepy baby phase. The other two have been a bit whinier than normal, but I think it normal since they are adjusting to new roles in the family. Overall, they have been really great. I was so worried that we were in the hospital on Reed's birthday, but it turns out it just seemed extra special because of all the excitement--he got to have a sleepover with Grandma and Grandpa, he got to go over to his cousins' house, and he got to eat cupcakes with us at the hospital WITH his new baby sister. He didn't get his bike on his birthday, but he was just as excited to get it two days later.
Mihelich: Party of 5, that's us! I love it.
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