(calvary seizes an opportunity)
(my four couch potatoes)
so everyone says that every birth and every baby are different and for the most part i would have thought that i agreed...that was until i had a birth and baby that was truly different than every other baby that i have had...and considering that i now have 4 small children i have a considerable knowledge base from which to pull.
i went to the doctor on my due date, june 14th, and was informed that my body had made absolutely no change or shift towards labor. they asked me to come in 4 days later to see if there was any difference. i ate spicy food, i bounced on a ball, i pulled 2 children and all their stuff in a wagon up to the pool (sorry harper...somebody has to walk), and prayed that my body would welcome this baby. still no change. the doctor scheduled me to be induced starting sunday night.
kyle and i headed to the hospital sunday night and everything just felt so different. the difference made me nervous. i knew what to expect with all the others. i came into the hospital early friday morning and had a baby sometime that day. but it felt weird going into the hospital that evening with all of the staff sitting at the desk looking at me and me knowing that we were all going to make this baby come out...even though my body clearly had decided otherwise. the next morning i was hooked up to the pitocin and we just waited. and waited. and waited. i walked around and stood up until a little after noon when i decided i would get an epidural. again, it felt so weird because i was so aware of what was going on. once the epidural set in i figured she would come soon. but we waited. and waited. and waited. the epidural was crazy. unlike any other i had, which again, made me nervous. i thought i knew what epidurals felt like but apparently some epidurals felt like the one i had that day which meant that i would feel nothing. i could barely move my legs at all because they were almost completely numb. at one point my right leg brushed against something and i looked down to see what was in the bed. it was my other leg. with every other baby i knew when it was time to push and i could feel everything associated with knowing it was time to push...however, this time the nurse and doctor came in and said, "i think it is time for you to push...yep. you're ready." all i could say was, "okay." i still could not feel anything. i just told kyle as everyone got into position that, "i guess this is what we're doing now." about 5 minutes after the doctor came in and told me it was time to push, i was holding finley rose in my arms. she was beautiful and looked exactly like calvary...with much more hair.
the rest of the evening was spent visiting and waiting for the feeling to return to my legs. finley was born at 5:30 in the evening and was not until almost midnight that i could walk. it was nice not feeling anything, but if this had been my first baby i think i may have been totally freaked out and left not knowing how to push or what to do because i had absolutely no instinctive desire to push whatsoever. i just did what i had done before.
thankfully we have amazing friends and family that helped out with harper, calvary, and oliver jack and kyle and i knew that while we were at the hospital they were having the best time. calvary and oliver jack were spoiled by nana basically making her house into summer camp with swimming and parks and lots of activities. harper spent the time with our newest, but feel like oldest, friends playing with the boys, making concotions out of berries, riding four wheelers, swimming, and falling asleep with the tv on...they had so much fun that we were all still in bed at 9:30 the morning after they got home.
this week we have spent transitioning into our new life. kyle has been home so it has been a bit unrealistic for me so far. we'll see the reality after this week. but so far finley just fits right in. harper, of course, adores her. calvary, surprisingly, adores her. and oliver jack, when he remembers that she exists, adores her.
so far so good...
