Baby!

The newest member of our household made her debut on October 11 at 3:01 am, 7 lbs 6 oz and 19 inches.  She will be called Tammy for the purposes of this blog, but if you do not know us personally you can find her real name in the age ticker on the right.

Birth story, in brief:

Water broke at 5:30 am on the morning of the 10th.  I went back to sleep.  Nothing much was happening when I woke up again, so Guinevere took the boys to the park while I called the midwives.  They said to come in, so the boys were taken to the friend who would watch them during the birth, then we headed to the hospital.  By the time I got checked out it had been almost 12 hours since initial water break, so we opted to start the induction.  For the rest of the evening they kept cranking up the Pitocin while I had not very strong contractions and we chatted with our doula and the nurse, walked around, and tried to rest.  By 1 am the contractions had gotten pretty strong, but I was only at 2-3 cm.  I asked for an epidural, and the midwife suggested I take some narcotics and get farther along first.  As they were draining the tub to get me out and ready for the epidural, I started screaming and pushing.  The midwife arrived just in time and Tammy was born a few minutes later.  (I heard afterwards that the anesthesiologist walked in as this was happening, saw he wasn't needed and turned around.) 

Baby highlights:

1. Tammy is eating like a champ.  Breastfeeding is so much easier this time, since I knew what I was doing.  Also she had good technique from the start.  We had a couple of rough nights of non-stop nursing, sleep deprivation, and hormones before the milk came in fully, but after that things were pretty smooth.  I'm pumping once or twice a day and Guinevere gives her a daily bottle, and she's doing great with that as well.

2. Sleep smiles are adorable.  We're getting occasional awake smiles now as well.

3. Doctor pronounced her very healthy with excellent muscle tone.  She gained 2 pounds in the first 2 weeks.

4. She fit into the newborn size for a while, unlike Rip, so we got to see some sleepers that had been packed away for 4 years.  Now that she's in the 0-3 month size, we are enjoying supplementing the gender-neutral clothes from her brothers with some girly clothes borrowed from friends with well-dressed daughters.

5. Like her oldest brother, sometimes when she is cranky she just wants to be put down on her back, and then she is content.  Apparently I make weird babies.

6. Sleep stretches at night are usually 3-4 hours, and sometimes up to 6!  She's doing great at sleeping in her own bed, though sometimes we end up both falling asleep in the recliner during the nighttime feedings.