Proof that even with your fourth kid, you still don’t look like you know what you’re doing 🙂
This past week, I took an adventure to Columbia St. Mary’s hospital on the east side. Theo and I woke up at 4am to make our pre-dawn appointment for an ECV (where the doc tries to turn a breech baby by placing her hands on your belly and spinning). But, baby girl had already turned around (the fourth time in one week going from breech to vertex, highly unusual for a baby to do that in the last week of pregnancy) and contractions were regular so we got things going with some pitocin and were off to the races. We chose this hospital because it’s where my amazing OB delivers, though I got a tour of Authentic Birth Center just last week. And had I gotten that tour earlier in the pregnancy, I would have chosen to have my baby there because it’s BEAUTIFUL and I went without an epidural which would have been perfect. BUT…my experience in the hospital was just how I wanted it to be. And we got a beautiful babe out of it!
Little miss was born at 2:50pm, and I can’t tell you her birth weight because we don’t know. She was measured at 7lbs 14 oz, but by midnight that night was up to 8lb 11oz so it’s likely that the initial reading was incorrect. Either way, she’s a champ.
It was a really foggy day and this was our view from the recovery room. We had a tiny view of the lake which was nice.
Little T, Little A, and J came to visit the next day and immediately jumped up on the bed and shouted “BABY!!!!!”. They’ve been so wonderful with their new little sister, and we’re all so happy she’s here. The first few days home have been tiring but good. I’m a little nervous for how I’m possibly going to handle this when Theo goes back to work, and preparing real food hasn’t really happened. I won’t tell you what we ate for dinner tonight because it involves things I swore I’d never feed my kids or let myself eat. Which brings me to the topic of asking for help.
Are you good at it? I’m not. It actually seems overwhelming to even plan what to ask for and when. Would just be easier to do it myself, right? I’m learning that it’s not. My friend convinced me to let her set up a calendar on WhatFriendsDo.com, so I’m still navigating that and hesitating on pulling the trigger, allowing friends and family to bring us food or help with the kids.
What a strange thing. Evaluating your own life and teetering between “life is GOOD, I’m super lucky and have so many blessings” and “holy crap this is hard I cannot do it alone”.
Thanks to everyone who’s already helped out, congratulated us, and sent their love. We’re so appreciative of the love in our lives.
A. Storm
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