Juliette
Born January 23, 2014
5:30AM
7 lbs
19 inches
Adorable.
So we got ready for a long night of no sleep, then called Papa around 11:30 to come sleep over with the kids. We got to the hospital around midnight. I still had my little timer and it really helped me focus as I watched the seconds move along while I waited for each contraction to be over. They were now two minutes apart and one minute long and very painful. I was dialated to a four. They admitted me immediately and I was introduced to my nurse. I informed her that I wanted my epidural right away. She smiled at me patiently and said she would order it as soon as she had all my information entered into the system. I had pre-registered so I knew it wouldn't take her long. Two hours later I still didn't have my epidural.
Finally the anesthesiologist was there and he was poking me with a needle. While I was trying to hold still for him, another huge contraction came and my nurse started shoving the heart rate monitor into my gut as hard as she could. Until this point I had been very sweet to her, even though she was super slow. But the pain was too much and I yelled "Oh stop shoving that thing in my stomach, it hurts so bad!"
Seriously, who cares if she can't hear the baby's heart beat for a mnute. Every bone in my body was breaking.
The epidural only worked on one side. The anesthesiologist said it was because I was so far into the labor. I hated my nurse a little bit more after he told me that.
I turned on my side and after about 30 minutes the epidural started to work on both sides. I told my nurse I would progress really fast now that I was relaxed, so be ready. "Ok," she said, "I'll be back to check you in a minute."
Two hours later she showed up and checked me. She broke my water and then told me to "bear down a little bit." B and I looked at each other. This is where I should inform everyone that my nurse had a lazy eye, and the lights in the room were dimmed a little bit, and she had brought in all these tables with scissors and other operating tools on them. Suddenly the room seemed a little bit haunted, and my nurse a little bit creepy.
"You want me to push?" I said. "If I push, this baby is coming out. I've only ever had to push once or twice. Where's my doctor?" I had the strangest feeling that this woman was trying to deliver this baby herself. I was bugged that she had broken my water, my doctor always does that right before he tells me to push. Why was she doing it? And why was she telling me to push?
She sighed like she was gathering patience to deal with a little girl, and said, "I just want you to push a little bit so that we can make sure the baby's head is past your bones." So I pretended to push a little bit, which seemed to satisfy her, and then she finally called my doctor and all the other workers came in and suddenly the haunted and creepy feeling was replaced by excitement and happiness. My doctor told me to push and after two pushes I heard a baby crying. My baby.
They placed her on my chest and the love I felt for her was simple and instantaneous. She was beautiful and perfect. And crying a lot. In fact, she cried from the second she came out of my body. Usually it takes babies a minute or two to clear their throats before they can cry. Not Juliette. She was crying before she was even all the way out. B and I looked at each other nervously. We were hoping for a really easy baby. We didn't seem to be getting one.
They wrapped her up and gave her back to me, and she was done crying. Oh, she was cute.
She is, in fact, a very easy baby so far. She sleeps all the time. Like, ALL the time. We hardly see her because she's always sleeping.
We think she looks a lot like Edmond did as a baby, and her mouth is like Scarlett's.
When Scarlett came to see her, she saw the baby and said, "Is that mine? Is that for me?"
"Yes, Scarlett, this is for you. This is your baby sister."
Scarlett was so proud.
Edmond and Charlie were proud, too. Finally, baby sister was here.
Sounds good to me.
Edmond also likes to nestle up close to Juliette and whisper things to her like, "Juliette, when you're five you can go to kindergarten like me and you can take turns bringing snack to the class, and you can play T-ball."
I love this picture of the boys looking up at their Father while he does something amazing.
We had a hard time choosing Juliette's name. B really wanted Juliette, and finally I agreed. I'm having a hard time using it, I keep calling her Scarlett. But it's growing on me, and the name is beautiful like she is, so it's perfect.
It's been a week since she joined our family and we are all so happy to have her here.
