Froggy Girls-- both three weeks old.

Eighteen days...has it been that long already? Days blur into sleepless nights as we adjust to having baby Evie with us. She really is a good baby, but is just has her days and nights confused so since I have one awake all day and one awake all night I don't get much sleep anymore! When Evie does sleep at night she is so noisy--she grunts and makes all kinds of noises as she wiggles around. She has a lot more spitting up issues than Aubrey ever did, so we bought a reclined sleeper/rocker bassinet made by Fisher Price. It does seem to be helping somewhat, she still is a noisy little thing though.
Aubrey is doing wonderfully with her new role of big sister. She is always kissing and hugging and wanting to hold Evie. Every time the baby makes a bit of fuss she tells me, "pick her up, Mom, she needs some "mom milk." One benefit of having Evie sleeping a lot of the day is that I still have plenty of time to devote to Aubrey. When it is nice out I pop Evie in my Hotsling and we can take a walk or Aubrey can play on her swingset. I do confess on rainy days I have resorted to allowing Aubrey a 1/2 hour of Veggie Tales or Thomas the Tank Engine--sometimes I run out of entertaining creativity. :)
Each day that passes I am gaining more confidence as a mama of two--I am sure pretty soon we will be out and about like we were before Evie arrived. I am thankful that the first three weeks have just about passed with their rollercoaster of hormones and emotions. Having been through all this before I know just how fleeting these newborn days are, and while I am grateful that I won't be up all night forever, I also am clinging to the sweetness of the wee hour cuddles with Evie who won't stay so little for very long.

Mother's Day 2010

She's Here!

Evangeline Emma Crane was born at 5:58pm on May 1st. She weighed in at 6lbs 15oz and is 18.5 inches long.





Birth Story

(warning, don't read if you don't want to know all the details, might be tmi for some, haha)

May 1st I woke up at about 2am with some contractions. They were too serious to sleep through so I decided to go upstairs and start timing them rather than tossing and turning uncomfortably in bed. I watched Food Network TV and had a heating pad on my back as my contractions were ranging from 4-8 minutes apart. I woke Bill up around 6am and let him know that I had been up for 4 hours and I thought that today was the day! We slowly started getting ready, packing the stuff for the hospital in the car, etc. Contractions were pretty steady all morning, not terribly uncomfortable, but enough to make me have to stop what I was doing and concentrate through them. Walking intensified them and made them come only about two minutes apart. Around 10am we called the dr. and she said to come in and get checked. We got to the hospital to discover that I was still only one cm dialated (same as at my dr. appointment earlier that week). So, we turned around and headed home. At that point I was rather discouraged that all the contractions I was having were not being productive!

We decided to eat a yummy lunch and see where things went. By one pm contractions were getting a lot more painful, I needed Bill to apply counter pressure and help me breathe through them. They were all four minutes or less apart at that point. We headed back to the hospital, arriving around 3:30pm. In the car and on the way into the hospital I was starting to really hurt during the contractions--and was starting to be pretty vocal about it!

Our doctor met us and checked me and said I was 3cm. Again I was a bit discouraged that all the pain I had been through hadn't gotten me too far yet. However the doctor said that she could tell by how I was acting I was going to progress a lot faster from there on out.

Per our birth plan I wore my own clothes, didn't have an IV. I didn't even get in the hospital bed until after the baby was born! Our nurse was amazing, she would find the baby's heartbeat in whatever position I was in, helped me with my breathing, and encouraged me.

Our doctor was right! It took me 1.5 hours to get to 8cm, and then only a little bit longer to make it through transition to being fully dialated. These two hours I was experiencing the most intense pain of my life, that is for sure! Bill was the best birth coach ever, supporting me, rubbing my back, helping me breathe and focus. The dr. even asked afterwards if he had taken a class on how to be a birth coach.

The dr. moved me off of the birthing ball I was on onto a birthing stool. She just let me feel the urge to push, and it took over. I pushed for only about 12 minutes (a bit different from the 3 hours it took with Aubrey!) My water broke as I was pushing--then came the ring of fire. Let's just say I hope that memory fades soon. As Evie came out I reached down and pulled her up into my arms and couldn't believe she was finally here. I remember thinking how much smaller she looked than Aubrey did when she was born. We waited a few minutes to cut the cord as I just half laughed/half cried and talked to Evie. Then I moved to the bed and Evie started nursing. Everyone just let her do her thing and we waited almost an hour before we even knew her weight and length.

Overall the experience I had was great. Everything went like we planned and requested of the hospital and the doctor. Our doctor was so much more hands off, but still present than I had expected. She was there most of the time that I was in labor in the hospital (probably because she could tell Evie was coming fast!) Natural childbirth was the most insanely painful and intense thing I have ever experienced, but seeing the wonderful difference that it made in how alert and calm Evie was compared to Aubrey made it all worth it.