As promised, here are a couple more pictures of our newest family member, and a little more info. on how everything went.
I'll give you the short version. :o) I started having regular contractions about 10:30 Saturday morning. They started to get more intense about 9 that night. We went to the hospital at 2:30 am when I started to get really uncomfortable. I was hooked up to the monitor about 2:45 am and had Lena at 3:52 am. It was nuts!
The nurse kept asking if I wanted the epidural, but I kept holding off, even though I really really wanted it, because I really wanted to have her naturally. I was only dilated to a 4 when the nurse first checked. But every time she checked again I was another 2 centimeters. By the time I was at an 8, the nurse said "K, I'm going to step out for a minute. If you feel like you have to push, let me know." Well, the second she walked out I needed to push. But there wasn't time to let her know, because the feeling was so intense I couldn't do anything but push. So, I pushed for one contraction, the nurse came back in, and I got another contraction and pushed once for the head and again for the shoulders and Lena was here. It was so fast that my doctor didn't make it, and my mom and Josh barely knew what was going on. Josh's focus was mainly on me, and then he looked down and said, "There's the head!"
So, it was fast! And I did it natural! And it was great! The recovery has been 1000 times better than with Asher. I was up and walking around easily a few hours later. It was the most intense couple hours of my life, but I will totally do it again because of how quickly it went and how great I feel. So there's a little of the story.
Here are a couple pictures. Asher loves his baby sister!
And Lena is already so much like Asher. Asher used to love hanging upside down, even as a newborn. Look at how her top lip just hangs there. It's like a dish! Haha! Just like mommy's and Asher's.
Our little Lena.
P.S. We are pronouncing Carolina like CaroLEEna. We didn't like any other spelling so we kept it the normal way, we'll just have to correct people. But I thought I'd let you in on that, if you hadn't figure it out already. :o)
And here are some of my favorite pictures from a shoot with my aunt, Jenn, when Lena was about 2 weeks old.
I just want to gobble them up! Lena has starting sleeping 7-8 hours a night. Yay! Her top canines have already started moving down. Eek! Hopefully they won't come completely through for a while. She is such a precious, special girl! And I just can't get enough of her! Asher has definitely reached the age of 2. Goodness! But he is sure cracking us up with what he saying and doing. I'll save that for another post though.
