family of four

I'll try and summarize the last several days for you....

*Last Wednesday, the day before Rebecca was born, was Rachel's preschool graduation (she's got another year of preschool, but everyone graduates, for some reason).  They sang three songs and everyone got a character award.  Some kids got "Kindness" or "Obedience" or "Hard Working."  Rachel got "Decisiveness: Able to Make Up My Mind."  Yep, that's my girl....it's a nice way to say she's stubborn and knows what she wants, I think.  But we are proud of her and love her just the same!  She's made great progress at school this year.

*Thursday morning we headed to the hospital at 5:30 AM for my induction.  By 6:30 I was hooked up to everything and the contractions started.  I wasn't allowed to get an epidural until I had a bag and a half of fluid in me, which took between an hour and two hours, I think.  They started getting painful before long, but finally the fluid was done and I was allowed the epidural.  It was heaven.  I didn't feel a thing after that.

*It took a few hours to go from 4-5 cm.  Once I was at 5, I suddenly started contracting every 1-2 minutes, instead of every 4-5 minutes, like I had been.  About 15 minutes or so after she checked me at 5 cm, she decided to check me again, and lo and behold, I was already at 10 cm!  In just minutes!  The nurse couldn't believe it (neither could we!) and ran out of the room to call the doctor and get everyone to come in and get everything set up for baby's arrival.  This baby was coming FAST! 

*My doctor came and pushing began.  I only pushed through about 4 or 5 contractions, and there she was, my perfectly healthy little girl!  She was crying before she was even all the way out.  She was beautiful and I was just in complete awe and disbelief, that she was finally here!!!!

*My dad had taken Rachel to school that morning.  When he picked her up, an hour after Rebecca was born, he was able to tell her that she was a big sister!  He took her home to change her into her "Big Sister" shirt, and brought her to the hospital.  She was so excited to see the baby and hold her.  She said, "Mommy, can we put her in a bag and take her home?" 

*Rachel had a million questions, about what I was wearing (the hospital gown), what was in my arm (an IV), what was on my wrist (hospital bracelets), and on and on and on.  She loved exploring the hospital, though she was much like a caged lion in that little room.

*She's fascinated with Rebecca.  She wanted to hold her over and over in the hospital, and whenever she did anything Rachel would report it to me.  "Look, Mommy, she's moving!"  "Mommy, she's getting ready to whine a little."  "Mommy, she's crying."  "Mommy, she's looking at me!  She likes me!"   And she tells me over and over again, "I'm so glad my baby sister is here!"  She checks on her all the time as she sleeps in her cradle (where she sleeps during the day downstairs with us) and reports her findings to me.

*On Saturday morning I was discharged from the hospital.  My husband and Rachel came to get Rebecca and me and we had our first family of four trip home.  Rachel saw me in my regular clothes, patted my tummy (which is considerably smaller, but is still there somewhat) and said, "Mommy, do you have another baby in there??"  Gee, thanks, Rachel.....  :)

*Life with a newborn and a four year old has had its challenges the last couple of days, but she's a pretty good baby so far.  When we first got home Rachel wanted lots of attention, understandably so.  That was hard for me, because my mind was on Rebecca and what she needed, but I knew that Rachel needed my attention too.  Since that day, though, Rachel has done pretty well with adapting to life with a baby.  She happily played by herself almost all morning this morning, without any prompting from me, which was great!  Rebecca has been sleeping most of the time, waking up every 2-4 hours to eat.  We've had to up her intake because she was constantly draining her bottles in minutes and looking for more.  Now that we've done that, she seems much more relaxed during her feedings and is sleeping longer intervals.  Hopefully the doctor will agree that this is okay when we go later this week.  She's got her days and nights mixed up a little bit, though she did better last night than she had the night before.  She spent a long period of time today awake, so hopefully she's learning that daytime is for playing and nighttime is for sleeping.  One can always hope!!! 

*We took our first family outing yesterday, to the park for a short walk.  It was nice to get out of the house, after being stuck at the hospital for two and a half days.  I went slowly, pushing Rebecca, but I'm actually not feeling too badly, for having just given birth four days ago.  I feel much, much better than I did after Rachel was born.  I guess because this was a much faster, easier birth.

*Overall, I'm loving having a newborn again--she's so sweet, cuddly, and tiny!  I'm loving NOT being pregnant anymore--I can't even tell you how glad I am that that is over.  And I'm trying to savor each of these precious moments of babyhood, because I know they'll go by waaaaaaaaaay too fast.  When my husband goes back to work and my mom leaves, I know I'll be much more tired and overwhelmed than I am right now, adjusting to having two girls; it's a huge help to me to have them here, but I still want to remember to enjoy these days of cuddling with Rebecca, watching Rachel enjoy her, and just smelling the top of that precious baby head!  (Why do babies smell so good, anyway!?!?)