Julia's Birth Story

The big kids are at my in-laws' this week and I was thinking I'd have time to get caught up on a lot of stuff.  Ha!  Newborns are a ton of work.  Duh!  I know, but it's so easy to forget until you have another newborn at home.  Anyway, I want to get Julia's birth story down before I forget (any more) of the details. 

I was scheduled for an induction due to producing massive babies.  We went to the hospital on the night of Tues. July 17.  I didn't have to be "prepped" for the induction, but apparently it's easier to get things started on time if you go in the night before.  So, we had a very restless night in the hospital-mostly due to not having enough pillows and excitement.

They started the pitocin around 6:30 am and contractions started immediately.  They got into a pretty good rhythm but  they weren't painful.  So, I asked the doctor to check my progress at around 9:30, and I had only dilated about one more centimeter.  I decided to wait it out for abit longer, but at around 10:30, I asked my doctor to break my water.  The nurses asked if I wanted an epidural, and I decided to wait.  I wanted to feel that progress was being made.  Within 20 minutes it was obvious that something was happening, and by 11:30, I was in serious pain.  The contractions were between a minute to 1.5 minutes apart and JD was quickly losing feeling in his hand. 

I decided to ask for the epidural around 11:45 because I was concerned that I still had several centimeters to go, and I knew I couldn't continue for two more hours with contractions coming that quickly.  The anesthesiologist came, and by 12:00, I was feeling better.  At that point, I was relaxed enough to tell that I was getting close, so I asked the nurse to call my doctor to check my progress again. He came around 12:15 and said it was time but that he'd give me a few more minutes to let the epidural do its thing.  In hindsight, had I known I was so close, I might have tried to go without the epidural, but then again, I'm not in major pain when I'm reviewing the events in my mind. 

Anyway, at 12:30, my doctor came back, and Julia was born at 12:34 pm.

In addition to an easy delivery, Julia made an impression on the doctors and nurses by having a true knot in her cord.  My doctor referred to her as a miracle baby, but I've read that a true knot occurs in 1% of births and doesn't necessarily mean the baby could have been in danger. 

 
I'm not sure, but I do know that Julia is a miracle just like all babies are miracles.  We are so blessed to have been given another miracle to raise.  I pray that she will remain a healthy, sweet, easy going baby, but most importantly, that she would not remember a time when she didn't love the Lord.

One week old

It's hard to believe that it's been one week since Julia was born.  So far, she has been such an easy baby.  I really am having trouble believing how laid back she is.  She's sleeping great at night now, which is such a blessing.  We're all enjoying her so much.

Introducing Julia Hope

We are home from the hospital and are doing well.  Julia was born on July 18 at 12:34 pm and weighed in at 9 lbs, 11 oz.  She outweighed Isabel by 1 ounce.  Aside from Julia favoring 2:00 am -4:00 am as her "witching hours", she's a pretty easy baby so far.  I've included a slideshow of our hospital stay, and when I have time to come up for more air, I'll do another post about her birth.  If you want to see larger versions of the pictures or the captions, click on the slideshow.

Swim Lessons

 Pierce and Madelyn took swim lessons for the last two weeks.  Both learned a lot-Madelyn is really working on her strokes and Pierce became so much more comfortable in the water that I don't have to watch him like a hawk anymore.  Isabel was just along for the ride, although she shows no fear of the water.
This was one thing I wanted to get done before the baby came, and we did. 

Happy 4th on the 5th!

I hope everyone had an enjoyable Independence Day!  We spent most of the day at home.  JD worked very hard most of the morning repairing our backyard gate.  As you probably know, the DC area was struck by a rare derecho, which left a pretty incredible trail of broken trees and power lines throughout the region last Friday night.  Our home escaped serious damage, but the wind did blow over our already wobbly gate and blew off one of our newly installed shutters.  We only lost power for about five minutes and are so thankful for that.  Some in our area are still without power, and I cannot imagine living through this heat wave without air conditioning and fans.  Anyway, JD did repair the gate and it works better than ever.  I'm so glad that I have a "Mr. Fix It" for a husband!

Yesterday afternoon, we went to a co-worker's house for a picnic, and the kids enjoyed bubbles, "pop its" and sparklers.  They also wore their patriotic,  tie dyed shirts that we worked on a couple of weeks ago, and they received many compliments on them.  

I hope you and  yours had a great holiday and were able to relax, reflect a bit on our freedoms, and enjoy air conditioning!

Theological discussions with Pierce

Pierce was asking about Jacob and Esau and if Jacob had a consequence for tricking Isaac.  Somehow that led to the discussion of having two wives (which JD was quick to point out that was a consequence).  Anyway, I asked Pierce if it was okay to have two wives.  He said, "No because when you get tired of having two wives, you'll still have to have two wives."