Leah Claire

Our second little bundle of joy arrived Tuesday, July 14th at 4:23 pm. She weighs 7 lb, 6 oz (amazingly the exact same birth weight as Kendall) and is 19 inches long. Her entry into this world was a little different than her big sis...I had my 39 week check up last Monday and was expecting an uneventful visit. My doctor generally won't induce until between the 40th and 41st week, so I was thinking I would go in for the usual checks and come out with an appointment for the following Monday. Well, much to my surprise, my doctor suddenly says "I'll be out of town next week, let's see what we have open this week" and with me still in shock, she left the room. Five minutes later I was being told that tomorrow was going to be the big day and to be at the hospital at 7am to have the baby! So you can fully appreciate what a shock that truly was - I have always thought my due date was too early and was getting constant confirmation of that every time they would tell me Leah was measuring a week or two behind. I was thinking that surely I would be past due and then maybe induced the week of the 20th. Then add the fact that I wasn't really quite ready for the 20th either and now maybe you see how scary the 14th of July was starting to sound.

Still shocked, I head back to the office to finish my last day of work for 3 months...I share the details with my friends and start noticing a weird glance beginning to pass between them. As it turns out, they'd had plans for WEDNESDAY, thus my news that MONDAY would be my last day was really throwing them off. But they still pulled it all together very nicely - cake, balloons, and a Nordstroms gift card...can't get much better than that :) Plus they didn't have the chance to ransack my desk, so bonus points there.

Monday was a bittersweet night...of course we were excited, but I was a little sad for a number of reasons...it would be Kendall's last night as our only baby and I didn't know how well she was going to take it all in. And it was my last night ever to be pregnant - although in many ways that would be a relief (no acid reflux - yay!) there would be so many that I missed: feeling Leah's strong kicks, seeing the bottom of my black hole belly button, and all the special things that go along with having a baby. With all the thoughts circling my mind and also the beginnings of contractions I was feeling, I did not get much sleep that night.

Early Tuesday morning, we loaded up and took Kendall to her day care before heading to the hospital. Due to a large number of births the previous day and evening, we actually had to wait two hours before being escorted to our labor/delivery room. This process was slightly new to me because my water broke with Kendall and we rushed to the hospital at 1am on a Sunday. This seemed much more scheduled...and that was slightly odd. The doctor said I was almost at 3cm that morning, so likely Leah would have been born soon anyway, and that made me feel a little better. The rest of the process went without a hitch...they broke my water and began giving me pitocin...I was able to rough the contractions for about 3 hours until they said I was only at 4.5cm so I asked for an epidural. Again, they missed the 'right' place the first time and had to do it again. I think that hurt worse than some of the contractions! I was at 7cm around 3pm when I started to feel pain and pressure. In fact, they were going to give me more medication when they flipped me on my side and I was almost instantly at a 10. That happened so quickly that they had to page my doctor twice so that she understood she needed to get there RIGHT THEN. Soon there after, sweet Leah was born :)

Kendall has been the best big sister - she is very gentle with Leah. She loves to call her 'baby' and pat her on the head. In fact, I think she is doing better with it than I am! I still have pangs of almost guilt when I look at Kendall and wonder whether she'll feel short changed by another baby in the house. At the moment, she seems completely fine, so I guess I'm the one that needs to get over it!

I am currently struggling to be 'everywhere all the time.' I have missed Kendall very much the past few days because I've been so busy with feeding and caring for her new sister. Although Trenton did help out before, I was the primary care person for Kendall so it's hard when he's taking care of all the little moments that I shared before. I'm sure in time things will calm down and I'll get to regain some of this time again - in fact, I can't wait for things to start feeling normal.

Overall, we are doing great. Thanks for everyone's well wishes this past week!