Introducing....Miss Natalie

Some photos of our little Natalie after she was born.

Finger licking good!

Meeting her for the first time!

Another Daddy's girl!

Kenna meeting her new little sister for the first time.

Birth Story for anyone who likes to read those:

On Friday afternoon at my regular check-up the doctor and I discussed induction options (should we? if so, when?). I opted to wait until my visit the following week to make a final decision, but decided to have the doctor strip, or sweep, my membranes while I was there in the office that day. Stripping the membranes is not considered a form of induction as it has a low success rate. Basically, the doctor separates the amniotic sac from uterine wall (which is connected by mucus membranes). It can trigger hormones that can cause you to go into labor - but only if you are pretty much on the verge of going into labor already. I had done this with Kenna on her due date and it was not succesful (she was induced 1 week later).

I was incredibly sore all night with lots of cramps and discomfort and mild contractions that didn't feel "real". I continued to feel sore all Saturday morning but took the opportunity to get a lot of last minute stuff done. I cleaned my fridge!!! Anything to keep my mind busy.

At 2pm Saturday afternoon I laid down for a short nap. I woke up just in time to feel a really, really good contraction at 3pm. When I had another one 7 minutes later, I decided to time them for awhile and see how far apart they stayed. I had had several episodes of multiple strong contractions that went away after an hour all month - so at that point I was mostly just curious. After an hour of timing contractions I felt they were real and mentioned that to Josh. I just puttered...made dinner, finished getting my hospital bag together, etc. Around 5:30 I realized that the contractions had increased in both intensity and frequency and decided we better not wait too much longer to head to the hospital. We called the Grennys in our ward - a lovely older couple who raised 6 children - and they hurried over to spend the evening with the children. We called Josh's parents, who were willing to drop everything and come for the night and a few extra days. And we called my parents just to let them know where we were headed.

I got to the hospital about 6:30. My doctor was on-call and happened to already be there (he had delivered 5 babies the night before - for Ft. Bragg that is a lot. 13 births a month is the average). I was dilated to 5cm. I opted to have an epidural - my first time having any pain meds since Hannah was born. I almost didn't qualify as I had struggled with mild anemia. Apparently your iron count has to be above a certain level. My last known level was too low, so they did a quick hematocrit test. I was praying that my level would be high enough as I knew that I did not have the emotional wherewithal to do this. Too many anxieties on my mind. I was lucky - I just passed! So, epidural in, I felt fabulous! Couldn't hardly feel any contractions!

I had to have antibiotics to combat a normal thing called Group B Strep which can be harmful to the baby but is a perfectly normal bacteria that we all carry. It surges and dies back and if it surges before you deliver, they administer antibiotics (this was my first time needing those). The doses need to be given 4 hours apart and they prefer to administer at least 2. I wouldn't normally be able to last that long, but the epidural made it possible. So I had the first dose at 7:30. At 9:30 I was fully dilated and ready to deliver except that my water had not broken and I had not received the second dose of antibiotics. So we waited for time to pass - either to receive the second dose or for my water to break - which ever came first! At 11:30 I was given my second dose. At midnight, after it had finished going in, the doctor said he would break the amniotic sac so that I could deliver.

Prior to this at a few ultrasounds we had seen that I had a huge amount of amniotic fluid that the baby was floating in. Knowing this, the doctor said, "I'm just going to make a tiny pinprick and let the fluid leak out slowly". His tiny pinprick turned into an explosion. It was really quite funny...but oh my! My doctor was soaked, the bed was soaked, the floor was a mess. The nurse was scurrying around getting blankets and towels to mop up. The doctor kind of looked shocked and then he chuckled and said, "I'll just go change really quick". I don't think that has happened to him before. :-)
He was back soon. I pushed with three contractions, and the baby was out!

She was born officially at 12:21 am on March 1, 2009 and weighed 7lb 13.6oz. Josh guessed 7lb 14oz so I guess he wins the prize. :-)

She is cute as a button. She has a really long tongue that sticks out WAY far. Josh and I don't think that she looks a lot like the other kids did at birth. They all looked similar. She is still in the sleepy stage and so we don't see much of her eyes yet. :-)