Tag Archives: Birth Stories

Tobin’s Birth Story

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How about a birth story to celebrate Thanksgiving?

While Tobin’s birth story isn’t full of all of the uncertainty that our other births came with, it was still very special to us.  When we found out we would be having another c-section (our hospital does not allow for a vbac after two c-sections), I have to admit that I was more than upset about it.  I spent weeks praying and crying and generally frustrated.  My c-sections were not horrible by any means.  However, not only was I going to have to have another c-section but the hospital where I had delivered eight of our babies had been bought by one of the larger hospitals in our area and was no longer doing labor and delivery.  We had no choice in which hospital our insurance would pay to.  The hospital we were to go to is large and probably does the most deliveries in our area.  I just knew that it was going to be impersonal and sterile and by the book “baby factory.”

In the long run, I had to pray a lot.  I knew we were with the doctor we needed to be with.  I had to eventually admit that we were at the hospital God wanted us to be at for delivery and that God was fully in control of this delivery.  I still prayed that God would allow me to go in to labor and we would “sneak” in to the hospital without having to have a c-section (with my history a home birth would not be safe for me).

So, about a month out, we negotiated Tobin’s birth date.  Dr. J was willing to let me go to the week of my due date since I usually don’t go in to labor until after 40 weeks.  I worked hard to get a delivery date after the due date…because, ya’ll don’t laugh…my besties birthday was that week and we agreed to have our babies on each others birthday (as luck would have it, she didn’t deliver her baby on my birthday either).  He wasn’t convinced and was quite surprised that I wanted to actually go past my due date.  So,we set Tobin’s birthday for October 16th.

For us, we prefer our new babies stay with us at all times.  That means we don’t use the nursery for anything more than what is absolutely necessary for medical issues.  We are 100% behind family-centered childbirth and after-care.  From watching friends births, we had not seen this particular hospital be anything but that.

Getting ready to meet Tobin!

We arrived at the hospital bright and early and ready to meet our Tobin and praying for a beautiful positive experience.  Getting prepped for surgery, I was asked if I would be breastfeeding.  I responded, that I would be breastfeeding exclusively.  The nurse asked if we wanted “no separation.”  While I had no clue what that was, it sounded exactly what I wanted and she quickly made note of it.   Another nurse came in and told Mark that he would stay with Tobin the entire time and if they needed to go to PACU, he would not leave him.  She was adamant about that.  I felt like God was giving us a reassurance that we wouldn’t miss a minute of bonding with our little one.  I made sure to tell them that I wanted to see him as soon as I could and I wanted to do skin to skin as soon as possible.  Each time I mentioned it, their response was, “Absolutely!”  They were also very accommodating to my wish for very little narcotics (they make me feel absolutely horrible and I usually go to sleep with them…or throw up.).

After they got me prepped for surgery, Mark came in and sat with me.  When Dr. J was close to delivering Tobin, he told Mark to stand up to see his son be born.  Mark was thrilled to be able to watch! As soon as Tobin was delivered, the nurse brought him over for me to not only see but to touch and love on.  They kept my arms free to move so I could love on him (previous c-sections I had them strapped down and had to ask for them to be freed to reach him).  They took Tobin over to the incubator to do his vitals and make sure he didn’t need any suctioning and then brought him back over to me.  The nurse held him close so I could give him kisses and love and then nicely told me they needed to make sure his grunting was nothing more than that (it was fine..this kid sounds like a pterodactyl all the time!).

Tobin Asher

8 lbs 12 oz

21 inches long

Getting some good Tobin love!

After surgery, they wheeled me to recovery with Tobin and immediately got to hold him for skin to skin.  Ya’ll, if you have a baby, skin to skin is the biggest way to bond with baby and has been such a blessing to do with Emmie and now with Tobin (my only ones to do this with).  Tobin was placed on my chest but when he was placed, he did something I’ve never been able to experience.  He did the breast crawl to nurse!  It was such a beautiful and pretty neat experience!

We continued to have a great hospital stay as Tobin went to the nursery for probably about 30 minutes total (during our entire stay) for weight checks and a blood draw.  They were good with us bathing Tobin as needed or when we felt he needed it and even encourage babies to not be bathed for the first six hours to help keep their body temp up.

Recovery was great.  I didn’t really need any narcotic pain meds excpet for Toradol (which should really be oral instead of just through iv.  That pain med is wonderful).  I advise anyone who goes through a c-section to plan to be in bed for a week doing absolutely nothing but bathing, bathrooming, and feeding and loving on baby.  After a week and with a little bit of compression on my abdomen, I was able to get up and move relatively well.

Tobin means “God is Good” and Asher means “blessing.”  Our Tobin comes after a crazy three years of medical issues with Emmie and an adoption as well as two miscarriages.  One of which was our sweet twins.  Through all of the trials, the joys and the struggles…we have sought to praise God because He has been so good to us and for us.  Tobin is truly a blessing to our family and there is not a day that goes by that we don’t thank God for allowing us to be his parents.

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.James 1: 17-18

 

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Emmie’s Birth Story, Part 3

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Part 1 is here
Part 2 is here

I know this is long but this was way different than Malachi’s birth and I wanted to share.  So, bear with me or just ignore.

We decided on a c-section again since Emmie was not coming down and I was not progressing.  Since I knew there was a possibility of this happening, I had decided ahead of time to write up a birth plan for a c-section.  There weren’t many requests and Dr. J thought I was tad insane that one of them included no strong narcotics.  Narcotics do not sit well with me.  I get nauseous, feel light headed and weak and just can’t focus in general.  I hate it.  And with Malachi,  I was unable to even hold him.  I was so weak, I just knew I would drop him.  This was just something I did not want.

Dr. J and the anesthesiologist agreed to my plan and the anesthesiologist even mentioned that morphine, which is commonly given, could make people throw up.  So, he agreed to give me something a little lighter and they all agreed to treat me with toradol for pain after.  The only thing that I was concerned about after talking to them was whether Emmie would be able to stay with me after she was born.  That all depended on the pediatric nurse.  I was so nervous when she came in to talk to us about it.  She sat down while getting suited up and said she had no problem with that as long as Emmie was doing fine.  Relief washed over me.  I knew I could endure the surgery and finishing up if I could just see my sweet baby.

I did get nauseous during surgery but every time I did the good doctor with the drugs gave me something and it took it away instantly.  That made the poking and prodding go a lot smoother.  It was a bit more uncomfortable but I attribute that to Emmie’s size and how high up she was.  I could tell that the attending doctor was having to push pretty hard to get her out.  When Dr. J was delivering her he kept saying, “Oh yeah, there was no way she was coming out the other way.”  She was just too high up and too big.

Once he got her out, he held her up and everyone laughed.  “That’s their baby alright!”  He exclaimed.  “Big and pink!”

She had to be suctioned out a bit but only once and she just screamed to get the rest out.  After the nurse watched her for a bit Mark brought her around to meet me.  That was the cutest set of cheeks attached to one of the cutest babies I’ve ever seen.  Mark got her hand lose so I could hold it and we were able to enjoy a bit of time while waiting on them to finish.  Every one was very curious how much she weighed.  The anesthesiologist kept saying she had to be taken to the loading docks because she was so big.

Obviously, she was super thrilled to be out.

Once in the room, the pediatric nurse weighed her and squeezed her in to a newborn diaper (apparently, we all forgot to communicate to the nurse that she was going to be big).  And asked if I wanted to do skin to skin to breast feed.  I have never held any of our babies skin to skin.   It just was never offered and I never thought about it.  So, I agreed and the nurse handed Emmie to me and she latched right on.  That was the coolest thing of the whole labor.  Snuggling up to my sweet baby skin to skin and getting to know her one on one.  It was a very special time.  Our nurse pretty much just left us alone.  Because I wasn’t loaded up on drugs, I felt like I could really enjoy this time.  I was tired, of course, but this was just the sweetest time for us.

After a couple of hours, the nurse came in and finished up getting her vitals and vitamin k shot and then Mark got to give her a bath.  Since, I was stuck in bed trying to feel my legs, the nurse grabbed my camera and took a ton of pictures for me.

I have to say this nurse was the best pediatric nurse we have ever had.  She was so mom and baby friendly and so willing to make sure we had a good time bonding with each other.

Unfortunately, it was several hours before we got to go to our postpartum room.  With the more babies you have there is more concern for postpartum hemorrhage, so the nurses had to make sure I was stable before letting us go to a room.  Emmie had a very hard time settling down and by 2 am I had enough.  Being awake for virtually 24 hours did not bode well for my emotional status but eventually they were able to finally clear us to move to a room to try and rest.  Shortly thereafter, Emmie settled down and we got what little sleep we could.

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Emmie’s Birth Story, Part 2

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If you missed it, check out part one here.

I settled in as the pitocin was slowly cranked up.  I’m guessing it wasn’t done too quickly because I was vbacing.  I kept waiting for contractions to come closer, and they did.  I also began to throw up.  Twice.  I hate throwing up and doing so while in labor is not fun at all.  We all took that to be good signs things were progressing.
Around 6 or so, contractions were coming very strong and but I was not feeling any pressure.  I asked to be checked and the nurse said I was still at 4 cm.  She was still high.  At that point, I decided I needed an epidural.  I had to relax and Kristina, Mark and I thought it would help get things moving.  Before the epidural came, Kristina noted that Emmie’s heart rate would decel with contractions so we all thought that surely she was moving down lower.  After getting a very aggressive epidural (the anesthesiologist was a big guy and pretty strong), I settled in  to get relaxed.  Despite the pain of it going in, it actually worked really well and I could feel the tightening of contractions but not the utter pain. 
Around 8, Dr. J came in.  He checked me and had a frustrated look on his face.  Still 4 cm.  Still high.  He talked to us and recommended that a c-section would probably be best and said he would give us a few minutes to talk about it to make the decision.  We had talked previously about waiting until the morning to give me more time to labor.  But by this time, and after getting sick and feeling nauseous again, I was exhausted.  Talking with Kristina and Mark we all three realized that getting baby here healthy was the most important.  I knew that if we waited and something happened to Emmie that that would result in an emergency c-section.  And realistically, knowing my history of childbirth, Mark and I both felt there was a reason she wasn’t coming down and we didn’t want to put her at risk with the stress of contractions.  Kristina agreed too.  It was a blessing, yet again, to have a doctor give us the facts and then let us make the decision.
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Emmie’s Birth Story Part 1

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So, here’s the low down.  That means, for all the guys who don’t want to know the sordid details you get this:  We had a baby.  It was a girl.  She was big.  Really big.  She’s healthy and we’re doing good.  The end.

And for the rest of ya…here ya go:

In my 40 week update, I stated that I really wanted to go in to labor on my own.  As the weekend followed that update, we saw contractions pick up, slow down and increase in intensity.  But they never picked up and stayed up so we never went in.  We waited.

On Sunday, May 11th, Mark and I put the kids to bed and settled down to relax before heading to bed ourselves.  We had a really yummy pineapple that was just the perfect ripeness.  I made a date smoothie (the only way I can swallow those things…but they were supposed to help with labor) and sat down to munch on the yummy pineapple (also supposed to help get labor going).  As we were watching a video and snacking, I noticed contractions coming a bit more quickly than they had in previous nights.  Not wanting to get excited about it, I didn’t mention anything to Mark and we went to bed fairly early.  A good indication labor is not coming soon is if I can fall asleep.  And I did.  But then I woke up around 1 to use the bathroom (a bit earlier than when I  would usually get up to go).  I went back to bed and after two very painful and close contractions, I decided to get back up and see if anything was going to come from it.  I started timing them, rocking in the glider, and after about an hour and half of them coming at 4 to 6 minutes and strong, I decided to get a shower and get ready to go in.  I waited to wake up Mark and thankfully, he slept through all of my rummaging around.  After I got a shower, I texted a friend and asked her to come over and watch the kids until Mark’s parents made it there.  I also sent out messages to Kristina so she would be aware when she got up.  I didn’t really want to wake up anyone just in case they sent me home.

After getting that in order, I got Mark up and told him it was time to go.  He jumped out of bed, got  a shower and got ready…quickly.  By the time he was ready, we woke up Zoe and told her what was going on.  She promptly went back to sleep and our friend B, curled up with her baby for an early morning of my kid watching.

On the way to the hospital the contractions stalled a tad but I do remember one really good one as Mark was talking to his parents and asking them to come on.

We got to the hospital about 3:30.  Got hooked up and they started monitoring.  I was checked and had not dilated any more.  Still 3 cm.  Still 50% effaced.  Still very high.  Now, Dr. J has told us time and again to contact him when we headed to the hospital.  But it was so early, I didn’t really want to wake him up.  I wish I had because after an hour the nurse came in and informed me that the on-call doctor (who I hadn’t seen) decided this wasn’t labor and they sent me on my merry way.  The fact that I was 41 weeks, vbac, and AMA didn’t raise any flags that my doctor may want me to stay.  I regretted not calling him since it was now 5:30 and I was completely exhausted.

Mark and I decided to walk around and the only safe place to do that at 5:30 in the morning is Walmart.  We stopped and got breakfast first which I could only eat a few bites of.  Nausea and contractions kept it from going down.  Then we napped in the Walmart parking lot for 30 minutes before heading in to the store.  We walked for about 30 minutes with contractions spacing themselves out.  Finally, we decided to head home since I was going to see Dr. J early that morning for a regular appointment.

I was able to nap about an hour before Mark’s parents arrived and we headed out again to see Dr. J.  His nurse, D, took one look at our zombie selves and knew something was up.  She got excited when we told her what was going on but also seemed surprised that they sent me home.  By this time, contractions were still coming but didn’t seem as strong at times.  Dr. J examined me and stripped my membranes and said that I wasn’t going home again (then asked if that was okay).  I wholeheartedly agreed.  He also was a bit upset that they didn’t contact him at the hospital and I told him we had thought about it but didn’t want to wake him up.  We were totally ready to meet Miss Emmie and I was just very tired and nauseous.  He got me to 4 cm in the office and off we went to the hospital.  He said he would be a long later that afternoon to break my water and start pitocin if necessary.  Contractions started almost immediately and were quickly at a good intensity and every 4 to 6 minutes apart.  I contacted Kristina, who was also going to be my doula, and we notified every one else that needed to know.

I labored all morning and into the afternoon with contractions staying a steady 4 to 6 minutes apart. The nurse (and one we have had for a few other births) checked me once and I was still at 4 cm.  I was in a pretty positive mood because we had not started pitocin yet.  My magic combo for all the other babies was once my water breaks and the pitocin is cranked up, I deliver within a couple of hours.  So we waited and I maneuvered one way and then another to try and get her to come down.  She was still very high.

Dr. J came in around 2 pm and broke my water.  Emmie was staying well on the monitor but when he broke my water (and she was still up really high) we lost her.  They worked hard to get her to come down and they sat me up to see if we could find Emmie.  Dr. J and the nurse were a bit panicked that they couldn’t find her heartbeat but they relaxed when I told them that she was kicking me everywhere.  He asked if we could put an internal monitor on her.  Concerns were that my age (that ugly AMA word again) and that she was 41 weeks warranted a need to keep up with her heartbeat. I agreed and that was done.  When he put the internal monitor on, she had already descended some but was still high.  Oh, and I was still at 4 cm.

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Liam’s Birth Story

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The last of the birth stories before I started blogging in 2008.  I hope you all enjoy!

Liam was due January 7th but given the size of Ace, Mark and I both were a little worried that he would come out just as big if not bigger.  Dr. J was  a bit anxious too.  So, due to that and (yep, lack of education), we decided to be induced quite a bit early.  Looking back, Mark and I both thought he would have been better off if we had waited.  Hindsight…yada yada.

Also, during his pregnancy the hospital I had used to deliver Zoe and Ace stopped taking our insurance and we were almost forced to go to the larger hospital (while better equipped, it’s quite the baby producers and more of a business and less personal than the smaller hospital we had come to enjoy).   Much to our delight, our insurance began to cover the smaller hospital so a delivery there was back on.  But, somehow, we got all mixed up.  Dr. J signed us up for an induction the same day as three other women…but they were at the big hospital.  And just us at the smaller one. 

When I arrived at the smaller hospital, they had no record that I was scheduled to be induced.  Calls were made and they went ahead and hooked me up and got things ready to start pitocin but nothing started until the final word came down from Dr. J to start it.  I visited with Zoe and Ace who were anxious to meet their new little brother and we just sat and waited.  Around lunch time, Dr. J had not come in yet because of the other deliveries at the other hospital and so my water had not been broken.  Mark headed out to lunch and we were told Dr. J would be there after lunch.  As I laid (yeah, on my back) in pain, I rolled over and heard a pop.  After that contraction, I paged the nurse and told her my water broke.  She didn’t believe me but came in and did their little scientific check which said it hadn’t but she knew by the amount of fluid it had.  So, for the first time ever, my water broke without Dr. J having to do it.  Pretty weird.  And I got a little frustrated that Mark hadn’t been there to help through those painful contractions.

Dr. J came in forty five minutes later and I told him he was a bit late.  We were all set.  I waited a bit longer to get the epidural.  When the anestheiologist was putting it in, I felt something weird on my right side and said something about it.  He said that was normal and continued what he was doing.  However, when he was all done, I was numb on my left side but could pretty much feel everything on my right.  I knew that wasn’t right but it was enough numbness to take the edge off.  We waited until around 3:30 when I realized I was feeling more pressure.  I called the nurse who checked and saw I was complete.  She called Dr. J who was finishing up a delivery.  Now, with feeling on one side, I knew that I couldn’t control the pushing too well.  The nurse offered to give me a shot to slow the contractions for a few minutes until Dr. J came.  I agreed to it and pushed the epidural button furiously until I couldn’t even move my left leg.    Dr. J came in plenty of time and by the time he arrived, I couldn’t even feel the contractions to push.  (So, my entire stomach was numb but the legs weren’t).  They told me when to push and I pushed a few times and out came Liam screaming passionately. 

Liam did give us a brief scare.  Even though he was crying, he didn’t “pink” up like he needed to.  The nurses took him to the NICU briefly to check his pulse ox level.  It all turned out fine and his apgar scales were really high despite his whiteness!  I’m guessing he’s just really white. 

He was also the smallest of our crew weighing in at a whopping 7 lbs. 4 oz.  He had the biggest feet but was so small for a long time, Mark and I thought we would break him by holding him.  If we could ever claim a high needs baby, Liam would have been it.  He had colic bad enough that he would choke when laying down and his sleep patterns were really erratic up to about four months (as opposed to the last three who settled down quite easily at night and mostly during the day after a few days or weeks).  We loved our little one dearly and that one small trip to NICU made us even more grateful for him!

And, despite our high needs baby, believe it or not, eighteen months later we were ready to do it again!  But, Josiah’s story will come next week (as soon as I find it), our first “no epidural” baby!

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Ace’s Birth Story

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Of course, I can’t type a birth story without a little background.  Ace is our gift from God which is what his middle name means!  When Zoe was eight months old, we found out we were expecting.  However, just a few short weeks later, we learned that baby had died and was now in the arms of Jesus forever.  We prayed and cried and sought God’s peace and amply provided it.  We grew closer together as a couple and we grew even closer to God.  At my two week check up after our miscarriage, we talked with Dr. J and then prayed and realized if it was God’s will, He would allow us to get pregnant again or He would have us wait.  Two weeks later, we learned we were pregnant with Ace!    While the first part of the pregnancy was full of uncertainty, we learned to rely on God to carry us through.

And a funny from the first part of the pregnancy:  I was about six or so months pregnant when the lab nurses suddenly realized I wasn’t being seen for a miscarriage follow-up.  Really.  At each check up, they kept asking my the date of my LMP.  And they kept marking up the check out sheet wrong.  We giggled about that.

So, the day of the big birth arrived as planned.  Yep, as planned.  I was induced on my due date.  I’m not sure what prompted us to want to be induced.  Again, probably a lack of education, the convenience of scheduling a birth.  Dr. J had been out of town the week before and his colleague was the one who left it up to me to schedule the induction.  However, as before, I was a really good candidate for an induction (usually am…if you don’t know what makes a good candidate, I can feel you in privately.)  I had dilated to a total of 3 whole centimeters but wasn’t really that close to labor.  At least not like I was with Zoe.

After pitocin was started, I never really felt like the contractions were strong or regular.  Dr. J came in around 9:30 in the morning and broke my water and I was still at 3 cm but could be stretched to 5.  I kept getting stronger contractions but I never really felt like they were regular.  Around lunch time, they were strong enough that I thought an epidural might feel pretty nice about that time.  The nurse came in and checked me and I was at a 7.  Of course, after now having three non-epidural births, I realize that I was transitioning and probably could have held off on the drugs, but at the time…well, the nurse asked if I wanted an epidural and when I said yes, she rushed out to find anesthesia and get them in quick.  Epidural in place, we settled in to wait for the magic number 10.

However, as I got close to 10, Ace’s heart rate started to drop slightly.  I had to get on oxygen and lay on my side to get complete enough to push.  When I got to 10, the nurse let me push once and then quickly stopped me to wait on Dr. J.  This was not going to be a two and half hour pushing marathon like Zoe’s birth.  Dr. J came in, said he was going to change and to keep pushing and then stepped out.  I pushed one more time and then the nurse quickly told me to stop.  She searched out Dr. J and he (as quickly as he does) got ready.  I pushed through three contractions and he was born.  The umbilical cord was wrapped around Ace’s neck at least one time and tightly which explained the drop in the heartrate.

Ace weighed in a chunker compared to Zoe at 8 lbs 14 oz.  But he was gorgeous and we were thrilled to have our second addition to our family.  Our precious gift from God!

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Zoe’s Birth Story

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Since we’re somewhere around five or six weeks out from Malachi’s birth (think close to six…my kids don’t like to come on or close to time without medical intervention and hoping that we won’t have medical intervention this time), I thought it’d be great to share all my birth stories.  I know I’ve got some friends out there who are birth story junkies like me so sit back with your tea or coffee (or diet coke or whatever) and enjoy.  The first three are already posted but each Friday I’ll post (or repost) a story.  And, as we say in my house, “AGE ORDER.”  This is called whenever we need to give things out one at time, etc.

Up first, my first born, Zoe.

A little background:  I started back to school to get another undergraduate degree when I was very newly pregnant.  My brain thought that I would continue with school even after the baby was born, maybe take a semester off, but that I’d finish and then go to work full time.  Since we didn’t have family in town and I knew of no one who kept children in their home, daycare was a given.  However, when I was taking summer classes, I had to do an observation of a class (I was going back to get a teaching degree).  Since it was summer, there were no classes to be found, so I had to go to a daycare.  God used that experience to make me realize that while my baby might be adequately cared for, she would not be cared for and loved by me and I would miss out on some of the most important parts of her first year of life and so on.  Regardless, I didn’t really come to that conclusion until a month from delivery and I was already near the end of my fall semester of school.

Zoe’s original due date was December 30th.  I had a pretty typical pregnancy besides her stubbornness in not showing off her girl parts at the first ultrasound.  Fortunately, we had connections and a friend was able to do another ultrasound at 28 weeks and we found out she was a she!  We were ecstatic.

The week before she was born, I had been having contractions on and off but none so strong that and regular that I felt they were that important.  I do, very vividly remember sitting in class on a Wednesday taking my last final exam.  I would answer a couple of questions and then pause and practice breathing..  My contractions were pretty strong.  One of my classmates kept staring at me and when I turned in my test, I do believe my poor professor gave a sigh of relief that I did not give birth in class.

The next week, I went in for a regular check up and Dr. J (yes, he’s delivered every single one of my babies), asked if I would like to have my daughter the next day.  I was surprised and so was Mark.  I was dilated to three and Dr. J did a quick ultrasound and we realized her fluid levels were really low.  So, we set the next day, a Friday before Christmas, as her induction date.  I didn’t realize how low the fluid levels were until Dr. J. broke my water that morning.  It was a trickle.  Barely a trickle.  I was also dilated to a four almost five.  I had been contracting that whole night and into the morning but had put off coming in since I knew we were scheduled to go in that day.

We waited and waited and like a good first time mom who hadn’t a clue what I was doing, I got an epidural when the pain got intense (I was probably at a six or so).  This was, by far, the best epidural I had (out of the three total).  It was textbook.  I also had an amazing nurse who refused to leave when her shift was up.

So, around 2 in the afternoon, I got the urge to push.  My nurse who had been with me all morning was there.  She was there an hour and half later while I was still pushing and her shift was up and the new nurse came in.  Dr. J came in and out to check  my progress.  He’d watch me push then walk out.  Never fussed, never tried to get her out…just waited.  I still praise God for his patience with this first time mom.  And my nurse, that would not leave, she cried when I had Zoe.  She was so sweet and amazing with us!  I’ve never had a nurse quite like her.  

Wound up, I pushed for almost two hours.  My sister was so impatient that she was standing outside the door to come see what was taking so long when I had her and Aunt Yaya screamed with excitement and freaked out the whole labor and delivery wing.  That’s how we roll in my family!

Zoe was born a little after 3:30 pm with her beautiful pink self and her sweet little cry and so much hair on the top of her head that we could have covered her in bows and there still would have been plenty of hair left!  All 8 pounds and 4 ounces of her (and that’s on the small side of my babies).  Mark was in awe and instantly in love with her and more in love with me…at least that’s how I feel about it.  He was so neat to watch because he thought (and still thinks) the whole process is such an amazing thing to watch.  Not many guys can say that…he’s a keeper I tell ya.

We brought Miss Zoe home three days before Christmas and she was the best Christmas present I’ve ever received. 

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