Welcome Sophia RaeAnne!

Well it finally happened! After months of discomfort and impatience, our baby has arrived!! 

Sophia RaeAnne Beazer

Feb 17, 2012

7 lbs 13oz, 19 3/4 in

She is such a doll and we are thrilled to have such a wonderful new addition to our family! I am so glad to have two little girls and can't wait to watch them grow up together. 

For those of you who are interested, here is my labour tale (for those who are not, feel free to skip down to the pictures at the bottom!):

I first felt contractions on Friday Feb 10th. They were regular but fairly mild and as it was the middle of the night, we decided to wait them out and see what happened. So what happened? They went away. The same thing happened the next night. It was disappointing and frustrating, but as my due date was still weeks away, I figured it was a good thing. 

On Monday the 13th, we celebrated Valentine's Day as a family because Matt would not be home the next night. It was a really fun night with just the three of us, eating pink pancakes and strawberries. That night we went to bed joking about how the only day we didn't want to have this baby was Valentine's Day because that would be a lame birthday. So of course I woke up a couple hours later with relatively painful contractions coming about 5-7 minutes apart. At that point we thought the baby is on its way. But having no idea what to do with our sleeping toddler, we decided to wait until morning if possible, then call a friend to see if we could drop Rory off.  The idea of sleeping until morning was impossible, so I got up, cleaned the house, and watched a show I had PVRed. At 5:30 in the morning, the contractions stopped. 

At that point I was devastated! It's not that I wanted the baby to come early (my due date wasn't until the 29th) but I was losing my mind not knowing if the contractions were real or braxton hicks. Not knowing if the baby was coming soon or still weeks away. Not knowing if its a boy or a girl or what in the heck to name him or her once s/he is born!! Add to that the emotions that come from being pregnant (especially the bloated whale, end of the 9 months kind of pregnant) and you can guess what a wreck I was!!! So after talking to Matt, I decided to ask my sister, Lisha to come down from Edmonton, just to be on the safe side. She arrived the next night. 

On Thursday the 16th, I had a doctors appointment. I told the doctor it had been  rough week and I was pretty frustrate with the continued arrival and departure of what I thought to be early labour. After a bit of a venting session, the doctor examined me and confirmed that I was 3 cm dilated (yay for progress!) and informed me that the next time I had regular contractions (painful or not) I had to get my pregnant butt to the hospital!! Second babies can come very quickly. (Ha! Boy was she right!!)

So Friday the 17th arrived and with it came more contractions. Around midday they picked up and I called Matt and told him to come home. We then spent the afternoon debating whether or not the contractions could be defined as "regular" (8 minutes apart) or "painful" (not really at all) and eventually decided at about 4:30 to suck it up and go in, accepting the fact that they might send me back home. As we prepared to leave we realized the camera was dead, so on the way to the hospital we stopped to buy a new camera (that Matt has been wanting for over 2 years now). We checked in at the hospital at 5:15. A nurse checked me out before admitting me, decided I was 6 cm dilated but noticed something odd on my exam so she found another nurse and had her check to make sure everything was okay. While examining me the second time, the nurse accidentally broke my water. 

From that moment on, things got crazy!! Contractions started coming very quickly (less than two minutes apart) and hurting A LOT more! The hospital was really busy so I had to wait a little while for a room. They asked how I was doing pain wise and I replied that I could handle it for the time being but would like a epidural as soon as possible please! (I had one with Rory and LOVED it). Eventually, I got a room and had a great nurse help me figure out some breathing techniques and showed me how to use the laughing gas (which didn't so much help with the pain, but helped me regulate my breathing and led me to say a whole bunch of funny things that were not very appropriate given the situation). She kept telling me the epidural had been ordered and that it would be coming but Matt and I quickly realized she was just trying to be nice. I was in transition and there is no way the epidural would get to me in time! So I relied on the laughing gas, the nurse, Matt (who was amazing!) and me. I cannot explain it but it was really hard but pretty empowering. And fortunately really brief. At 7:47 (2 1/2 hours after arriving at the hospital), a little baby was put into my exhausted and unprepared arms. I was so tired and in such shock, I didn't even ask (or check) if it was a boy or a girl. I just held that little one close and tried to process what had happened! 

And so Sophia RaeAnee was brought into our family and we love her so much. We were very fortunate to have family visiting for the whole first week of her life. That week was very difficult for me. Between nursing struggles, terrible nurses, wonderful nurses, a readmittance to the hospital for phototherapy on account of baby's jaundice, 600 lbs man ankles!!! (bad swelling that lasted over a week) and a general lack of sleep and overwhelming flood of emotions, I had a pretty rough go of it. Fortunately things settled down, and I am now enjoying being the mother of the two most amazingly beautiful girls in existence. 

 38 weeks pregnant. About to leave for the hospital!

 Baby Sophia Beazer

Dad's first cuddle.

 Family photo (minus Rory of course).

 Mommy and Baby

 Rory meeting Sophia the next morning.

Daddy's a bit out numbered in our house now.

Rory doesn't smile normally when asked.

Mommy cuddles. I look so tired here. I hate the hospital!

 Rory had a lot of pent up energy and was blowing off some steam by dancing in my slippers.

Going home!! (Less than 24 hours old!)

Big sister inspection.

Back at the hospital, under the lights (at a different, much nicer hospital) for phototherapy. Despite my devastation over leaving Matt and Rory behind and staying the night, it was actually a pretty good experience. 

 Decked out in protective eye gear.

Which was literally velcro-ed to her head. 

 Home from her first Sunday at church.

Big Yawn!

I love my girls!