Welcoming Naomi Anne!

Naomi Anne! 

Naomi Anne is here! Earlier than any of us was expecting! And we're delighted to be graced by her presence all the sooner! And equally thrilled that by not entering the world on a Saturday, she's already shaking things up in our family.

It was a bright and sunny Tuesday and the big girls and I were going about our usual business, as I was pretty confident we'd have at least until the end of the week before our new little one made her debut. We enjoyed a park playdate with friends in the morning, then checking off a few more of the tasks on my, "Much easier to do pre-newborn" to-do list. This had me trekking through Target with a full cart, and may have contributed in some small way to our baby's appearance. I noticed myself feeling increasingly contraction-y and crummy (as I had been for a couple days prior), and enough so that I mentioned to Matt that we weren't necessarily not having a baby that night.

When you suspect you're in labor the first time, you drink plenty of water, time contractions, rest up and Facebook your friends. When it's the third time around, you put in a load of laundry, run the dishwasher, straighten the house a bit, put fresh batteries in the camera, finish prepping the carseat and pack your hospital bag (after all, the baby wasn't supposed to come until the weekend). So it wasn't until my head hit the pillow at 10:30 that I paid much attention to the fact that contractions were coming every 4-5 minutes.

But the baby wasn't supposed to come until Saturday! Why do I keep mentioning this? Because both of my previous deliveries happened at about 39 weeks, laboring on Friday night and delivering on a Saturday. Like clockwork. This would've put me in labor on my birthday, I should add.

So I worked on getting to sleep, which I did succeed in for about an hour (more than for any of my previous kids). Not too long after I woke up from that, Grandpa was arriving and Matt and I were leaving for the hospital.

The weigh-in!

I was surprised to find that my contractions were still quite bearable. I was even more surprised when they stopped the second we walked onto the labor and delivery floor. And quite annoyed when I almost got sent home (after all, I'm a third-time mommy, I know when I'm in labor and as long as I'm going to be up all night, let's have a baby instead of doing this again tomorrow night!). Unfortunately, the monitor showed that the baby's heart rate was dipping occasionally, but fortunately, that and the fact that I was, actually, having regular contractions 3-4 minutes apart (just not very painful) made them admit me.

Newly born

The moon was full that night, and possibly not out of sheer coincidence (from everything Matt could grill out of every nurse he asked), labor and delivery was a hopping place. I was lucky to get a room, (and even luckier later on to get a nice recovery room). In very little pain, I dozed. This made my contractions go away again. I wondered if I should just go home.

But my doctor and nurse had other ideas when I consulted them a while later. For one, the weak contractions had actually made progress! They were real, they just didn't hurt much at all. The next news was that my doctor wanted me to go ahead and get the epidural, and start me on a trickle of Pitocin to get things going a little better. The baby, by the way, was doing just fine.

Look what I have! A baby!

The fact that I had a shot at a relatively pain-free labor actually took a while to sink in. I was opposed to the idea at first, having had much more painful labors than I'd hoped for with the first two. Could it really be this easy? Should it? Then I realized that I was the crazy one, not them. The anesthesiologist was in my room within 30 minutes.

Epidural safely in place, however, I briefly engaged in a somewhat alarming struggle against low blood pressure. We fixed the problem soon enough, and shortly after I was  reading, dozing and watching The Price is Right as the baby did the hard work of getting ready to be born. The attentive nurse helped keep me comfortable.

When it was almost time, my doctor arrived for a casual chat. She was early because she'd had several cancellations in her schedule. But in reality, she was just about right on time, and after less than 5 minutes of catching up about our kids, it was time to push.

At 5, Kalina is a lot more eager to
hold a newborn than she was at 2!

Naomi was out within 10 pushes, crying nicely (the only time I like to hear crying!), more than Kalina and less intensely than Elise. She had a short little umbilical cord, but it was enough to make her the first cord blood donor in our family (the other girls having been born on Saturdays where, in Durham, they didn't have anyone to collect the cord blood). Good plan being born on a Wednesday, Baby!

Naomi Anne was born at 1:30 p.m., weighing 6 lbs. 1 oz., and 18 inches long. The smallest of our three small babies! (But in her defense, the earliest!)

She has dark brown hair, very dark blue eyes, very light eyelashes and--most surprising--a dimple on each cheek! But where did they come from?

The big sisters (and Grandpa) descended upon us in the evening for dinner! Kalina and Elise were overjoyed to meet the new baby, and tossed around lots of "sweet!" "cute!" and "baby!" Kalina noted that the baby's feet looked cold, and expertly covered them up with a blanket. And Elise grinned proudly, ear to ear, the whole time it was her turn to hold Naomi. I wonder if little Naomi knows how excited we all are to have her join our little family!

The bundle is twice as big as the
baby!

We also worked on pronouncing Naomi, a name they distrusted at first, but quickly fell in love with. Thank goodness for the practice: otherwise, the poor girl might grow up thinking she's to be called, "Meeomi!"

Naomi's first couple of days have been lovely. She's perfectly healthy and perfectly beautiful. Her only hardship in life, so far, is that she seems to have been born with a tummy full of amniotic fluid that she spent her first 18 hours or so spitting up and enduring some tummy pain over. Poor thing! She still seems to have some gas pains, but hopefully they'll calm down as her tummy gets used to having something other than amniotic fluid in it. She also gets really fussy when she needs to sleep. But don't we all?

Pancakes, yogurt, fruit and a cookie,
our first meal together as a family
of 5!

I have learned a few things about Naomi already. First, the spasmodic tapping I felt coming from her in-utero is her foot. It just kicks like that sometimes. She likes to cuddle and thought being on her tummy was just the best for her newborn photo shoot yesterday (pictures to come--she's already proving herself extremely photogenic). And she slept well last night--I was worried she had adjusted her sleep-to-eating ratio a little too far toward the sleep end, but her final weighing at the hospital showed her weight at 5 lbs. 11 oz., which means she only lost 5% of her birthweight. The nurse assured me that was excellent!

And, as the best birthday gift ever, I got to bring her home today. No, I did not put a bow on her. Yes, I am tempted to.

Look at my beautiful eyes!

Kalina, when we brought Naomi home: "Ooooohhhh look at her cute little outfit! Isn't she adorable?!?"

Elise: (sniffing her little sister) "She smells like a baby!"

Now, we're all taking turns holding the cuddly little bundle, and she's alternating between tolerating and enjoying the attention.

 We're all so grateful to God for this newest little blessing! We can't wait to see what life has in store for her--and what she has in store for us!