My Littlest Princess is Here!

On August 21st, our new little princess, Rebecca Marie, joined the family. I can't believe that I am now the mommy of THREE (3) little girls!

Tuesday night, after we had tucked Rachel and Joleen into bed, Josh and I decided that we were going to watch the new Star Trek movie, Into Darkness. Rachel had been dealing with a little cold and apparently Joleen got it that night, she came out of her bed crying and I decided to cuddle with her for a little bit. While we were cuddling, somewhere around 10pm, I felt a POP and had the strangest feeling that my water broke. When my water broke with Joleen it was a sudden gush, every time I moved it would gush out, this time it didn't do that. I had a feeling it broke but I wasn't sure because when I would get up nothing would leak out. It just seemed like I needed to pee a lot. I was very confused for a while. So around 1030 I called Labor and Delivery to see what they said and she told me to sit down and maybe the baby's head would move enough that it would start leaking. I got a pretty strong contraction around 11 and Josh went ahead and called our buddy Jonathan to come over and watch the girls. I still wasn't sure that my water had truly broken. I had thought that I was going into labor before and I hadn't so I didn't want to get my hopes up. But it was a good thing that he called him. Around midnight I called Labor and Delivery again and told her that I still wasn't sure if it truly had happened, she told me to come on in and she would check me, that way we would have peace of mind and be able to sleep if it hadn't.

Josh and I arrived at the hospital and got a room at 1am. When I was changing I needed to give a urine sample, when I did I noticed mucus floating around and when I wiped I saw that I had my bloody show and lost my mucus plus and my contractions were definitely the real thing now. When the nurse checked me, my water had broken and I was dilated to a 5 but I wasn't that effaced. I got all settled in and it was now the waiting game. My contractions got stronger and stronger and more frequent. Around 330am it was really starting to take a toll on me, the nurse came in to check me and I was still a 5 but the baby had dropped a lot more and I was completely effaced, now I just needed to finish dilating. At 4am I requested an epidural, I had had enough of the contractions. The anesthesiologist came in and got me all set up, at 445am I felt a whole lot better and fell asleep for about an hour. When I woke I was nice and numb and Josh pointed out that I was having constant contractions, it's amazing how you don't really feel it. We called the nurse in and she checked me and the baby was already trying to make her way into the world, I was completely dilated and the top of her head was peaking out. They started getting all set up and told me my doctor, Dr. Ruteldge, wasn't going to be in until 7. There was no way that I was going to make it another hour without pushing. The pressure got stronger and stronger, to the point where I had to keep myself from pushing and I could FEEL the baby pushing her way out, amazing. At 630am the nurse let me start pushing, we were still waiting for either my doctor or the on-call doctor, Dr. Smith, to come in. I did 2 sets with the nurse when Dr. Smith came in. I think I did maybe 2 or 3 more sets of pushes and my little miss Rebecca came into the world at 7:00am! This time I didn't rip or need to be cut to help her head come out, definitely made recovery time a lot quicker.

Feeling the little life push it's way out of your body is such an amazing sensation. Knowing that God allowed me to help create this little one and help her enter the world, so mind-boggling.

Rebecca Marie was born August 21, 2013 at 7:00am, weighing 7 pounds 5 ounces, and 20 inches long.

Rachel and Joleen are so happy to have their little sister here. They love her so much. Josh and I love all three of our little girls. It definitely has been an adjustment and I know it will still be a little while before we are all settled in but in the end I know it will be worth it.