Not so Routine

Things around the house have been - not so routine - since Olivia was born. However, we are starting to settle in and get adjusted to one more family member. We even accomplished a whole day of school today. YEAH. The older boys are absolutely crazy about her and spend a lot of time trying to get to hold her. I catch them trying to wake her up on occasion -- not good. Russell and Zeke have both really been a big help this first week, and they have anxiously volunteered to -- I'm sure that won't last long LOL. Caden is doing well with the transition to -- Not the baby. He really likes her a lot and smiles and kisses and hugs her. He has even held her a couple times. Of course there are the subtle little signs of insecurity. I wouldn't call it jealousy because I really don't think that is it. He just needs a lot of reassuring that things are still ok and mommy and daddy haven't forgot that he is still there. Today daddy left for National Guard Drill in Mississippi and then he has a follow on class at Ft Bragg for two weeks. We are all going to spend the last week of the class with him at Ft Bragg so that he doesn't go 3 weeks without seeing Olivia.

For those of you who haven't heard, Olivia's birth went great. We wanted to have her at home, but since having a home birth with a midwife is illegal in WV we found a midwife in Virginia about a little over an hour south of here. After her due date came and went (31Mar), we started doing everything we could to get her to hurry up and get here. Nothing worked. Finally after a whole day (9Apr) at the midwife's going through every imaginable natural induction technique, we decided Olivia was not coming until God was good an ready for her to come. Finally the evening of 10 Apr I went into labor around 2200. I was waiting for my contractions to get 3-5 minutes apart because in 2 of the other 3 cases that meant I was about 3 hours from delivery. Well, we went from 10 minutes apart to 1 minute apart in 45 minutes. At this point we were in --for lack of a better term -- panic mode. We got everyone in the car and called the midwife that we were on the way. Chris did an amazing job driving like a mad man. We made the hour and fifteen minute trip in 45 minutes. It wasn't until I was in labor and driving at 80 miles an hour that I realized that the road between our house and the midwife's would make a really good NASCAR Road Course. The turns are insane. Anyway, Chris did really good making the road as easy as possible and still getting us there. If he had not driven so fast We probably would have been on the side of the road in trouble. My water broke with 15 minutes left and I was ready to push a couple minutes after that. Gotta love trying not to push for 15 minutes. We arrived at the midwife's house at 1148 and Olivia was born at 1214 AM 11 Apr. My friend Heidi just did make it in time to watch the kids so that Chris could be in the room for Olivia's grand entrance. Olivia came into the world spinning (literally) and screaming with her first breath. She scored a perfect score on the APGAR test, measured 20 inches long and 7 pounds 14ounces. Since her loud entry in the world, she has shown to be a pretty mellow baby who already sleeps at night for 4-5 hours at a stretch. One thing she doesn't like -- diaper changes. We have found the key to that though and have bought a diaper wipe warmer. That seems to have improved her discontent considerably.