New Baby Sister

I started having contractions about 20 minutes apart last night and pretty much just felt crampy and miserable as I was getting the kids in bed around 9:00. I wasn't really sure if I was actually in labor or not, but I called Brian who immediately ditched his friend and a free steak dinner in Layton (they'd been watching basketball games) and flew home at about 90 miles an hour thanks to the anxiety leftover from our last delivery experience.

When he got home, we called Grandma Swings who came up to spend the night with the kids (they were all sleeping and had no clue what was going on) and decided to head to the hospital even though I was still only contracting every 20 minutes or so. They weren't likely to turn me away since I was scheduld to b induced at 1:00 in the afternoon, anyway. In the car, my contractions suddenly started coming every 3 minutes so I figured I was really actually in labor but since they never got really painful we realized we were safe from all my 3 AM nightmares of delivering a baby in the car.

We arrived at the hospital around midnight and they admitted me and got me an epidural right away so I never even felt any bad contractions. That was nice. But things just never really picked up even after they broke my water. And here we were all expecting another super fast delivery. So the nurse put me on a pitocin drip to get things going and within an hour I was fully dilated and ready to deliver--she speculted I'm one of those women who get to a 4 or 5 and go really fast from there. (I wish I'd realized that before so I wouldn't have wasted so much pregnant paranoia worrying about getting to the hospital on time.)

A few pushes and our new little baby girl was born at 4:55 A.M. And she is a doll. I think she looks like Maggie. It's so hard to tell when they're newborns--they just look like babies.

Oh Brian and I are so tired. You just can't sleep when you're waiting for a baby to come, even with a good epidural. There's so much to worry about until it's all over and they're really here. So it was a long night for us. Why do I always go into labor at night?

Grandma and Grandpa Swings came at about 8:30 this morning and brought the kids to meet their new sister.

Nathan got to hold her all by himself--much to the envy of his younger siblings.

Matthew climbed up next to me and giving me a big hug, asked how I was doing and why my tummy was so squishy and what my bellybutton looks like now. So curious.

Maggie kept demanding to hold "baby sister" and when I asked her what we should name the baby, she replied "Banana". I'm afraid it's sort of stuck. Anna Banana, anyone?

We're so grateful she's here safely--whatever her name may be--and glad she's well and healthy. It's so surreal to think this beautiful child was growing inside me only yesterday. What a miracle life is.