...And Then There Were Three

As I reached the end of my pregnancy with #3, I started to have the same issues and symptoms that come with every pregnancy. The back pain and leg numbness becomes more of an problem with each pregnancy, as I have more kids to chase and things to do. I chose to induce Carter at 39 weeks, and had a great experience (and still a 7.5 lb baby!), so we did the same this time. 

I was scheduled to be at the hospital at 9 PM on Thursday, November 13th to start antibiotics for an induction early on the 14th. Early on Thursday, it started snowing lightly, and as the day went on Alex and I both kept getting severe weather warnings on our phones. By mid afternoon we had an inch of snow and promises of up to 6 more throughout the night. I enjoyed my last meal (see below), but was getting a little anxious.

Our original plan was for me to check in at the hospital by myself so Alex could stay with the kids for one more night, then for him to come early in the morning. We were so grateful to have Amber and fam living so close, because the kids were so excited to go play with their cousins that they didn't care at all to be away from us for a couple days. About dinner time (with 2+ inches of snow and falling hard) we decided not to risk bad roads, so Alex came with me for the night before as well. That meant an additional night of 6 kids at Amber's house...thank you SO much!

After getting the kids settled, we headed - very slowly - to the hospital. I had to stop for a smoothie and some fries on the way, and Alex was impressed enough at the snowfall to take a picture. It doesn't do justice to the amount of snow falling, it was actually hard to drive.

Spending a night in the hospital when actually not in labor was weird. There was lots of nurses, doing various checks and changing IV bags, each one telling me to relax, that tomorrow would be a big day :). I knew this, but sleep was not going to happen. I was just excited to meet our little girl! About 4 in the morning we officially started the induction with Pitosin, and got ready for an eventful day. We took these pictures of our view; the nurses all said that we made the right choice, it was a bad day to be driving. We were also the only people on the labor floor for most of the day, I think all the other babies were waiting for better weather.

Note: This is the 'birth part'...not graphic but if you don't want to read it, skip ahead :).

Labor started VERY slowly...contractions would happen every 2 minutes, then skip ten minutes, just very irregular. I knew that as soon as the doctor broke my water it would be super fast, but she wanted to wait until my contractions were regular and hard before breaking my water. So we waited...and waited. About 10:30 we had the max amount of Pitosin flowing, and contractions were getting harder. So I called for the epidural just before the doctor was coming back. Placing the epidural seemed fine, but it never started working. After half an hour of harder contractions than I have ever felt before - I have epidurals each time - I called the nurse to get the anesthesiologist to come back. After discussing options (trying the epidural again, a spinal tap), I sat up so he could look at the injection site. As soon as I sat up, one of my legs went numb, and I was sure that it was starting to work. It was the end of the time period to change anything for pain management, but I was hopefuly so I decided to stick with the epidural and just try to switch sides more to get it flowing better. I decided wrong. Besides one very numb leg, the epidural did nothing for me. I had as close to a natural birth as I ever want :). It does make me respect mommies who do birth naturally, but I love epidurals, and being able to enjoy the birth process.

At 2:09 PM, Makenzie Brooke Casqueiro was born. She was totally silent, and the slimiest of our children. I was really concerned as the nurses took her over to get cleaned up. Alex remembers me asking over and over if she was alright as she was squirming and wiggling in the warmer but not making any noise. The nurses were rubbing on her and suctioning her out, but she was just a quiet baby. They brought her over very quickly, and everything was perfect. 10 tiny fingers, 10 tiny toes, and a sweet, very expressive face. For the first hour or so, she had some majorly grumpy faces, but that didn't last long. It seems every hour they change as they get used to this new life.

She was 8 lb, 1 oz, and 20 inches long. Our biggest baby by 1 ounce :). I love the above picture of Alex, such a proud Daddy. Her pictures show her 'healthy' sized mouth which seems prominent on each of our children. Immediately I could see a stark resemblance to Olivia. We will see how alike they look as children, but their baby pictures couldn't be closer to identical.

I promised to share the next picture...Alex took the crazy cross eyed picture ...I promise she has never made that face since! She is such a beautiful baby that we laugh about these crazy pictures; every baby needs a few!

After the wonderful wide-awake stage was over, and I got all feeling back, we moved upstairs to our room in the mother-baby unit. I was feeling very good, and quickly realized that we could have the kids come meet their new sister. I new Olivia at least was anxiously awaiting the arrival of this real-life baby doll for her to play with.

Amber brought Olivia and Carter to the hospital around dinner time, they were so cute with their little sister. As per their personalities, Carter was much more interested with all the buttons on the bed and wall and Olivia just wanted to be as close to Makenzie as we would allow. They checked out all her parts, Carter was NOT impressed with her belly button. His attachment to his own has grown into a sort of obsession, and he just said 'no no no' as he pointed at hers. Hopefully when the rest of her cord falls off she can gain his belly button approval :).

Makenzie had a gift of a camera for each of her siblings, and O was quick to start snapping pictures :). She has gotten quite a few great pictures, but they are all blurry as she is moving to the next picture she wants.

For the first day or so we thought Kenzie's hair was curly, but after she got her first real bath we realized that we were wrong. It is fine and straight, just like our other kids. She does have quite a bit of red in her hair however, I'm curious to see if we will have a little blue eyed, strawberry blond kid.

One of the sweetest moments that day was Carter having his turn holding the new baby. He climbed right up and pulled her toes out to start singing 'This Little Piggy'. Such an awesome moment, I know he will be a great big brother to her.

Late that night, Grandma Terece flew into town. It may have been close to midnight, but we were just hanging out at the hospital, so we were glad to have some visitors. Amber was the best sister ever and brought snow ice cream with her! Snow may be one of the weirder things to sneak into the hospital, but I was grateful to have my favorite snack.

Our first night was good, but after quite a few diaper changes and getting up to get the baby for me to feed, Alex was worn out. We hadn't yet adjusted our sleep schedules to include getting up many times a night...and we stayed up longer each time just to stare at this little beauty. She was a much bigger fan of sleeping than she was of eating, we had to force her awake to eat every time for the first 2 days. 2 months later I can safely say that she has grown out of that newborn sleeping phase.

Saturday was a Beaver Gameday, so when the kids (+ cousins) came to visit again, we had Makenzie all dressed up for the game. This little hat was my silliest purchase for her, I knew she would only wear it once or twice before football season was over and the hat was too small, but it was just too cute not to buy. She may have been the littlest Beaver cheering them on that day.

All of our Idaho cousins were very anxious to meet Makenzie, even down to Teagen, who has always been enamored with babies. His faces the entire time were adorable.

Dan has proven to be a huge baby hog :). He always has to be the last to hold the baby, because he will hold her until she needs to eat or get a diaper change. At that point he is all too willing to pass her to me or Alex. 

Perhaps my favorite baby gift came in the form of this card from Elli, which she brought to the hospital. It's a picture of my face right before Makenzie was born, then right after. I think she probably got it pretty close!

After a while the kids were getting louder and louder, and it was time for them to head home. It's amazing how quiet the hospital is after six kids 10 and under leave! We spent the rest of the day relaxing and just staring at Makenzie. She wasn't a great eater because she just wanted to sleep and sleep. We didn't see her eyes for more than 5 minutes until she was about a week old. I may be biased, but I think she is a beautiful sleeper.

Alex spent the night at home with the bigger kids, and I was very glad to see him the next morning. It's amazing how even from 1 day old, kids know when they only have one parent on call, and it happens to be the very tired, sore one :). We got all ready to go home...then we waited for 2 hours. Checkout takes SO long! We were excited to be together as a family and may have been optimistic about the length of the check out process. Eventually, with a nurse chasing behind us to give us a Super Bowl Dip recipe (don't even ask...) we made it out and on our way home.