Naomi's Birth Story

If you haven't heard, this little piece of sweetness came out of the oven on Thursday.  Here's how it went down....

This entire pregnancy had been different from my other two. I was sicker in the beginning, I carried much higher, I was mostly stomach (even though I gained 45 lbs...yep, have to document that somewhere, too), I had crazy sciatic pain, and some pelvic issues from before the pregnancy flared up toward the end when I got big. Being married to a chiropractor is awesome. Steve kept me mostly pain-free. I just wish there were some adjustments that targeted crankiness.

I wondered if labor and delivery would be different with this one as well? With the other girls my water had broken on its own, and I needed to be induced several hours later because I never went into labor. This time I wanted my body to labor on its own, and I wanted to avoid having an epidural (for other reasons, mostly lower back issues).

38 week appointment: I was already dilated to a 3. This was new for me, as I had never dilated before my water broke in the past. During that appointment I had met with the nurse midwife (instead of the OB) and I asked her for advice on how to get labor going in case my water broke, and I was in the same boat as the last two deliveries. She gave me a recipe for "special scrambled eggs" (eggs cooked in castor oil) that I could use in case I need a little push. I'd heard mixed stories about using castor oil (mostly getting the runs instead of going into labor... sometimes both) so I decided to think about it. Mixing it with eggs made me wonder if it would be easier on my stomach and not just clean me out.

39 week appointment (last Wednesday): I was dilated to almost a 4. I started to panic a little after the doctor said I would probably go fast once I went into labor. That was hard for me to imagine because I'd never gone into labor on my own before. (And it certainly wasn't fast.)

I really didn't want to dilate much further and not be able to make it to the hospital in time. With the other girls it took me FOREVER to dilate to a 6, but once I passed that mark I was pushing the baby out within minutes.

So...

Enter: "special scrambled eggs" Because I was dilated so far. and I was within a few days of my due date I decided to take the castor oil risk.

Thursday morning: I finished packing my hospital bag and getting some things together for the girls.

10AM: Cooked up the eggs. Said a little prayer to myself and ate them. And waited.

1PM: Mild contractions begin and eventually they got to be about 5 minutes apart. Steve came home for lunch. We left around 3, dropped off the girls at a friend's house, stopped at Steve's office for him to adjust me, then we went to the hospital.

4PM: Arrive at the hospital. I was dilated to a 4. Still having mild, but close contractions. They told me to walk around for an hour or two to see if I was making good progress before they officially admitted me.

6:30PM: Another check -- dilated to a 5.5. They decide to admit me and slowly wander off to find an IV and get some paperwork together.

6:35PM: After 2 or 3 sudden "I want to punch a hole in the wall" contractions (not like the ones I'd been having up until that point), I asked them to give me something to help with the pain. They check me again, and I was FULLY DILATED.

6:45PM: (No IV yet) After another crazy contraction or two, I felt like I had to push. Nurses are taking apart the table and getting stuff together for the delivery. My water EXPLODES after the first push (Steve liked that part.)

6:51PM: Out came little Naomi after the 2nd push and onto mama's chest.

 She was absolutely perfect. She weighed 7 lbs 1 ounce, and measured 20 3/4 inches.

I felt great as well, and relieved that it went so fast. I thought it was interesting that I got everything I wanted out of this delivery, but it wasn't really by choice. (Except for "inducing" myself. But I also hear that castor oil doesn't work if your body isn't ready. I guess I was.)

Naomi has been a little nursing champ since she came out and latched right on. My milk finally came in today (Sunday) and she's been sleeping most of the day and less cranky.

I'm still getting my wits together and dealing with the annoying "I'm crying but I have no idea why" episodes. I do feel good, though, and I'm glad that everything went well and we're both healthy!

We decided to name her Naomi LaRue, LaRue after my grandma (my dad's mother). Welcome to the family little one!!

(I've got a video clip of the other girls meeting Naomi for the first time that I'll post shortly....)

Sophie: Age 5

Sophie and her best friend "Little Fuzzy"

 I feel like I just wrote the post about Sophie's 4th birthday. She's so grown up. She's always acted mature for her age, so turning five wasn't a total shock since she acts like she's 14 all the time.

Sophie had the idea of filling a bucket with sand and putting the umbrella from her sand table in it. Then they grabbed boxes from inside the house to use as beach chairs. Maybe we should get some real ones...?

Sophie's fun. She has great ideas and loves being in charge. (Luckily Ivy doesn't mind being bossed around a bit.) She's also very tender-hearted and gets her feelings hurt easily, but I think it's that sensitivity that allows her to be nurturing. She's very watchful over her little sister, and although they argue and fight sometimes, she's very protective of her -- especially when we're not at home. 

She's very girly and loves all things sparkly, pink, & frilly. She likes to read books, dance, listen to music, and often sings to herself (on key with pretty good vibrato, too.) Sometimes I think she's going to be my musical theater child, but then I remember how shy she can be when other people are around.

Drawing and coloring are also things she does often. The pictures she draws are sometimes people/family oriented with lots of flowers & butterflies. And sometimes she'll just draw an entire page full of circles in straight lines which brings me to her next interesting trait....

Sophie is all about symmetry and patterns. When she plays, her princesses/ponies/rocks/whatevers are often lined up or arranged in some pattern. (I can relate to that. Symmetry and patterns make me happy, too.)

Sophie's very curious. When she's interested in something she'll ask a million questions about and want to find a "movie on the computer" (aka YouTube) about it. (Lately it's been about sea animals... dolphins, whales, sharks, etc.) She's also very observant and has a good memory. She'll pick up on and remember very small details about places or events and bring them up at random times.

Lately she (both girls actually) has been supplementing her princess fetish with a bit of Strawberry Shortcake and My Little Pony. For her birthday cake this year she wanted the same cake as her 2nd birthday (this Vanilla Cake with Strawberry Cream Frosting), but wanted blueberries instead of strawberries. I sat down with her a month ago, she told me exactly how she wanted her cake to look and I drew it for her.

She wanted a Rainbow Dash cake. That hairy thing is Rainbow Dash herself. Don't those clouds and grass look so realistic? Sometimes I amaze myself.

Birthday cakes are a big deal around here. The girls talk about them all year long, and have them planned out for the next three years. (They always change their mind about a month from their birthdays, so I don't have to rely on my memory.)

We played it pretty low key this year. We gave her a choice between a party with friends or dinner and shopping with mom & dad. She chose dinner and shopping (much to my relief -- I'm not up to throwing a party for a dozen kids).

We're so proud of how much she's grown and learned the past year and can't wait to see how she likes Kindergarten this fall!

Oh, and did I mention she's grown FIVE inches since September? That kills me.