Adelaide's arrival - July 1st 2010

The morning began like the rest that week. We woke up early, got Azlyn ready for VBS and headed out. I had been sure that Adelaide was going to have made her appearance by the middle of the week and by Thursday I had resigned to patiently wait until she was ready. There were a few different reasons I finally decided it'd be better if she just waited through the weekend, but...I guess she was ready then! Each morning that week we'd sent Azlyn off and then taken Asher to go play at the mall and tried to get some walking in but this morning we stayed home and rested. That afternoon the house was quiet, Asher was down for a nap and we were resting again and low and behold...my water breaks. This has happened with each of my children before I ever have contractions in labor. It apparently only happens in 1 in10 pregnancies and I love it b/c it gives us some time to prep and get ready to head out. We were doing dishes, making the beds and making sure it was a nice clean house to come home to:) Gotta love that! My brother in law Chris stayed home with the kids and we headed down the the birth center at 3:30 not really having any contractions yet. We got there a little after 4:15 and the birth center had just closed which was nice b/c that meant no more patient visits that day. After being checked(I was still at 4cm) we decided to go get some food before any major contractions hit. We pulled out our phones and found a cool place in uptown to grab some sandwiches. My mom works 5 minutes away and she came and met us. I have an app on my phone to time contractions and so I had begun using it so I could keep track and by the time my mom got there a little after 5 I had started having contractions about 2 minutes apart. About 15 minutes into that I thought we ought to pack up our food and head back to the center. I had gotten ahold of my doula earlier and given her updates but since we were hitting rush hour I called and made sure she was on her way and hoped she'd make it downtown in time! We got back to the center and got everything unpacked. As happened last time with Asher immediately once we were there my contractions started to progress quickly and Troy was so attentive to my needs! I know my labors are fast so I quickly wanted to get in the water and labor there. As they were getting that ready Jessie (our doula) came through the door, yay!!! That was 6pm and after a while I told her how I was feeling and I was checked and was at 5cm. The pain was so intense I thought geeze..only a 5?? I started having contractions that I felt like I needed to push through and Jessie had to keep reminding me not to especially since the midwife wasn't there yet. Around 6:40 the midwife arrived and heard me saying that I hated trying not to push and she said well..why would that be?! So she checked me and I was ready to go! She told me that with one push I'd be ready...I thought that meant...then I'd be ready to push again later and she'd be there but one push and here came Adelaide at 6:49!! I was in complete shock, I couldn't believe we were at this point and she was already here! It was the most amazing experience. After the baby is born you are at the birth center for about 4 hours before being discharged if all is well. Those few hours are a whirlwind. After some recovery time we wanted to the kids to come up and meet their little sister so Grampy picked them up from our house with Uncle Chris and brought them down to the center. It was somewhat of a chaotic time while they were there but I wouldn't have changed it for the world. It was a moment I will cherish forever! With Asher we just brought him home to meet Azlyn but now that she is older and even Asher is old enough to understand a bit, we wanted them to see where she was born and get to experience a bit of what others do when they go visit the hospital to meet siblings:) Once we had them leave we were able to rest some more, Troy napped and I sat wide awake staring at Adelaide(Troy had monopolized her when she was first born so it was my turn:). It's funny how different Troy and I are after each birth, he is worn out obviously b/c it's been such a day and I am too but I have all this adrenaline so I'm am on a high and it takes a while to get down from it. We went home that night at midnight and she slept like a champ all night. She is such a precious baby, sleeps a ton, smiles all the time while she sleeps and eats well. The past night was a bit rough but I think she'll figure the night sleep thing out:) Here is a little timeline of the day in pictures. I have so many I couldn't figure out which ones to use. I will have a lot more uploaded on our family shutterfly website if you want to check them out just click on the link at the top of this page:)

Our last picture as a family of 4!

Bye bye belly, hello Adelaide!!!

Waiting for our food at Greenz in Dallas

Laboring at the birth center

I think Troy's ready to do this:)

Our packed up dinner

Jessie arrived and jumps right in

She's here!!!!! Our first picture with Adelaide

She just stared at him with her big beautiful eyes while he got her warmed up under the lamps.

That was exhausting, time for some food!

My turn with her:)

Weighing her... 7lbs 13 oz

This is the midwife Carol who delivered her

Nana and Adelaide

Jessie and Adelaide

Here come the kiddos! They were so excited to meet her, I heard Azlyn ask immediately as she walked through the door " I want to see her face!"

Azlyn showing off their gifts for Adelaide in front of the center.

Some snuggles while waiting to give her first bath

Our family of 5

This is the kids having fun spinning around on the ottoman

Adelaide's first bath given by Daddy

Adelaide loves it, he just held her behind her head and she floats and was so at peace

Here's a glimpse of the craziness with having kids up there, they were so excited crawling all over the bed and me? yes his butt is wet...he climbed in the shower and fell in some water...lovely:)

Azlyn is attached to this girls side, she loves her so much. My mom has been taking them to her house during the day so we can rest here and Azlyn will call and check on Adelaide..."mommy, I miss Adelaide. We are gonna come over and see her for a little while" another call " is Adelaide being fussy? How is she?" She's a little mommy! Asher loves to hold her. It only last's about 30 seconds each time but he likes to do it a lot!

Time to go home

And here a few pictures from the last few days:)

This was the longest Asher sat and held her, he kept kissing her and smiling. He's pretty proud to be her big brother!

Happy 4th of July!!

Look at this sweet face!!!