three kiddos

it is funny how different each kiddo is. i guess i will start out by telling how they were from day one....

Frances
I won’t go into a lot of details for this one, but she was tough. Real contractions Saturday (bad enough to wake me up that evening and we started counting). We went to the hospital Saturday night (middle of the night), I was at a 2, but they sent us home. I continued contractions and went to my doc appt Monday. Luckily, he checked me and and sent me to the hospital (no way was I going home). I was at a 5. We went to the hospital that am and got an epidural and sat around for a long time. Frances did not make her appearance until that evening. I pushed about the max amount of time (Dr. Joffe said if the last ditch effort wasn’t going to work then we would have to go c section). So three hours of pushing, he got the forceps. Not a pretty site, but it worked. It happens that Miss Frances was sunny side up so that was not helping me trying to get her 8lb 7oz self to come out (did I mention she was 2 weeks early- we are pretty sure my due date was off). It took a long time to recover from the delivery, but that is why they had the heavy drugs.

She was a very easy baby. Fat girl ate well (took about 5 minutes to nurse and was good to go- I don't think I even ever had to burp her). She would sleep wherever we were if she was tired. If she needed to sleep, she would just close her eyes and there you go. She did refuse to bend her knees so at an early age was standing and walked about 9 months (I don't think she even crawled). To wrap it up fat and happy baby......as a result we decided it was okay to have one while she was still pretty little so about 21 months later...train wreck was here.

Thomas
I mean you heard the first delivery, but yep we decided one more. Luckily, any delivery would seem pretty easy than the first one. I wasn’t feeling well for an evening and woke up and felt like I was going to get sick. Looked down and realized something was going on. I hadn’t started contractions, but called the doctor. I said this was my second and they said get to the hospital. By the time we got there, my contractions were about 3 minutes apart. I think we checked in around 3 in the am. I only had contractions for about one hour and then the epidural so no real complaining. They had me lay on one side because that helped move along dilation. T was sitting pretty high and his heart rate was not where they would have liked it so I had a little oxygen. The doctor came in and gave me the usual speech on what he needed me to do. I listened of course and Thomas dropped to where he needed to go. I pushed some, but not as much as Miss Frances. He was a much easier delivery and didn’t need the heavy drugs.

T was much different then his sister. He basically cried for everyone except my mom and myself. He still was a good eater, but not as quick as his sister and slept ok. He really did not like Rusty (for about a year and a half). He would cry when I left him with him and until I got home and he was in my arms (really he would hand him to me and he would stop- almost as if she was proving a point). He is all boy so he is busy, busy climbing on things and on the go. We thought he would be it, but then decided we wanted one more. Almost three years to the date of his birth (Hannah was due the same date as T)...along came Miss Hannah.



Hannah
We headed to the hospital to be induced on the 18th (were there at 5 am). We were in a room around 6ish and they started the iv and pitocin (no idea how to spell it). Things went very slow. The doc came in again around 12:30/1 to break the water and that got things moving. For about 45 minutes the contractions (the big boys) were about every 2-3 minutes and I said epidural time please. Well it was almost too late for that..... by the time the doc got in there for the epidural it was almost too late- the contractions were coming every 45 seconds and lasting for about a minute. They said usually once they break your water you dilate about 1 a hour (went from a 2 to 10 in 1.5 hours so you can imagine how fun the contractions were). The epidural kind of kicked in (the doc had just finished and basically walked out the door when I told the nurse I needed to push). Quickly my doc got over to the hospital and about 4 pushes (two to turn her because apparently our girls like to try to come out sunny side up and two for her to come out). She did not have to go to the transitional nursery like the other two so we actually had her in the room the whole time for clean up etc. Must say easiest delivery (I felt like I could have driven home from the hospital :) ).

The jury is still out on this one. She definitely takes after her brother and is a slower eater. Not a bad sleeper, but because of the RSV and hospital stay as a one week old, I am a little nervous about her at night and I don't want her to wake the other ones. She basically is pretty good if she is on schedule and miss thing gets her naps. Her only really fussy time is when Rusty is trying to relax (7-9) she is getting better so we will see.