Home Sweet Home *with updated birth story

After 2 days in the hospital with my feet up and being waited on by darling sweet nurses, I am now home, also with my feet up, being waited upon by my mother, husband, Dad, and 2 eager-to-please children.

I am supposed to be napping right now, but I already took two this morning (the sweet bliss of extra help! I've already got twice as much sleep in one day home than I got in the hospital. Go figure), and my mind is anxious to record my feelings...

Ruby is precious!  We have a special bond, this little girl and I. Which probably makes my sisters breathe a sigh of relief because in utero I really don't hold much of a bond with my unborn child. It's one of the bizarre things about me and pregnancy.  It doesn't become real until I am holding her. And then I am flooded with emotions and it's as if she's always been a part of the family.

This early on I'm always hesitant to claim my child has any sort of personality trait, perhaps for fear I am speaking way too soon. They always change to some degree and being a few days old after a traumatizing event and being very tired, it's usually too soon to tell much about how they are going to be for the long haul....  But for now, Ruby is quite an easy child and perhaps she is a little intuitive that she is the third child. She eats well and is patient. She has a calming effect-- on me anyway.  She is easily soothed and like my other 2 children, not only smiles in her sleep, but laughs out loud. I love it. She sleeps great during the day...hence all the naps I've been able to take.   At night, she sleeps, but likes to suck and those pacifiers are tricky to keep in....we'll figure something out.

She has a lot more hair than my other two had.  After she was bathed the nurses stuck a little white bow on her head. It made me laugh out loud it was so cute.  Her eyes already look like they are going to be blue. We have been so curious to see how this little girl turns out-- Blonde and blue like Cade or dark eyes and hair  like Savvy. Perhaps she'll be a mix?  She's beautiful, precious, and worth every ailment that  came with my pregnancy. I'd do it over again. I really, really would. And I hate being pregnant. ;)

I'm thoroughly enjoying my baby fresh from heaven. Cade and Savvy adore her to pieces.  I stare at her and wonder how on earth she fit?!  It's so miraculous.  We are blessed beyond description

The delivery (if you're interested)

The delivery went great. It is my favorite part of the journey. We arrived at the hospital around 8am. The kids were staying with Aunt Melody and were as happy as they could be with that arrangement. I arrived a little grumpy because I was feeling pretty nauseated.

After filling out all the fun paperwork and changing into the very cute hospital gown, my nurse measured me at 4cm. About an hour or so later I had an IV pumping pitocin through me.  In the mean time, Kyle and I watched an episode of the West Wing.  It's become a tradition for us to spend a bit of our time at the hospital when we have a baby watching our (my) current favorite TV show on DVD.  Highly recommend West Wing, btw. Even if it is about a Democratic White House. Hee hee!

This induction was a little different because usually my water is broken first and then I get hooked up to the IVs and pitocin, but the doctor wasn't schedule to be back to the hospital until after lunch time.  At least that's what the nurses told me.  There were at least 3 babies born while I was hanging out it my room, and then the nurse told me I was the only one left. Lucky me! I had nurses pampering my every need. I felt like royalty.

At around 12:30 Dr. Lamoreaux (who also delivered Cade some 6 years ago) broke my water. It was painless and really got things moving along.  I'd been hinting to the nurses for a couple hours at this point that I REALLY would like the epidural any time now. Meaning, give me the epidural before I feel ANY pain.  They didn't really catch on. At the time I just thought perhaps they didn't want to be put out and that's why they were dragging their feet about the whole ordeal, but more likely than not, I didn't do a very good job of making my demand just that--- a demand.  I didn't want to be squnching my face in misery while requesting the epidural. I wanted it before any of that. My ultimate goal in the labor and delivery experience---to enjoy it!   It did get to the point where I was in pain and they took me seriously, so in came Dr. Todd William Johnson.  I found out this time what day his birthday was-- April 4th. Or was it the 5th? Anyway, I've always wanted to send my anesthesiologist a gift on his birthday. They really have (in my opinion) the most important job in this entire process.  A good epidural experience is priceless.  I sent Kyle out for lunch when I suspected I'd be getting the epidural.  Blood and needles and Kyle are not a safe combination. Unlucky for him, he came back just when the doctor was getting started, so Kyle helped out and let me lean on him, literally. He did great, I was really proud of him. The epidural went in without a hitch and I enjoyed the happy, pain free place I slipped into. See photo below for proof of my happiness.

About an hour or 90 minutes later (who's really keeping track of time when they are feeling light as a feather and the most comfortable they have felt in the last 9 months)  I was feeling pain again. I wondered if it was time to push. ?? Nope, the nurse measured me at 8cm.  It was just the epidural wearing off.  Dr. Todd came in and gave me another dose of the epidural, and I was feeling good again. Kyle commented, "All right, she'll be ready to push in about 5 minutes."  He meant it as a joke, but really about 10 minutes later I suggested the nurse check me again and sure enough, Ruby was ready to come.

Except, the doctor wasn't there, so we hung out for another 20 minutes or so... at which time I took advantage of the "down time" and proceeded to text close friends and family that I was about ready to push. I suppose it wasn't very nice of me to do that because I didn't get back to some of them for at least 4 or 5 more hours. Oops. I was probably better off just keeping that to myself.

 The nurse took my word for it that my other two came out in a few pushes, so she didn't have me do a trial push before the doctor came. Wise choice. 4 pushes later, out our little angel came and Kyle and I were laughing and crying and snuggling our little girl all at once.

She screamed and cried until she was in my arms and then I think we both just melted. She was calm and sweet and alert...as if she knew who I was.  She scored a 9.9 on her Apgar test (go Ruby!)  -- my sister Melody informed me of that. I'd never thought to check before with my other two. In any case, I was just so overwhelmed with gratitude that we were blessed with yet again a healthy baby.

While Kyle and I were oogling over our little princess, the doctor was trying to coax the placenta out. Then coaxing turned into tugging and pulling and which proved unsuccessful and eventually turned into (echhhhh---TMI alert here) reaching in my insides and pulling it out. Very uncomfortable. However, the epidural was still working quite well, so it could have been worse. Much, much worse.  Fortunately it came out it one piece and all that was needed after that was some antibiotics to be added to my IV line to prevent infection.

Ruby's temperature was a little low so they had me snuggle and nurse her skin to skin for about 30 minutes two times.  While it was good for little Ruby, it was sad for Cade and Savvy because they didn't get to see much of her. They were pretty excited to see her little hands peeking out from the covers though and that held them off until the next day when they got to see her in full view.  Kyle took the kids home and put them to bed while Ruby and I stayed in the delivery room for a couple of hours to meet her Gramma and Grampa Sheppard, Her Aunt Melody, Uncle Jon and cousins.

While visiting with my family, a sudden wave of fatigue and sleepiness came over me.  It seemed kind of silly, but the nurses kept reassuring me it was because of all my hard work. I laughed. It was just 4 pushes. I didn't do anything!  I'd love to take the credit for my breezy delivery, but it feels kind of silly doing that when I don't think I have much control over how it happens.   My nurse kept reassuring me that I really did do a lot of work and was a fabulous patient. { Her patient next door pushed for an hour and half and made the nurse talk to her baby while she was pushing. I couldn't help but chuckle over that.} Really it was my body that did the work, and I think several weeks of poor sleep finally hit me all at once. Of course it was several hours even after that in which I was finally able to sleep, as that is the way it goes-- you know, getting your vitals checked, etc etc.  Fortunately we were both healthy and really I couldn't ask for more than that.