Violet's birth story!

 Our first moments at home.

 Our first moments with Violet.

Josie and Nan nan's first moments with Violet.

Beware! Lots of birth terms!

Pop pop came to our house at about 430am on Jan 29th, 2013 to stay with Josie. We got to the hospital at 5 to be induced.  We got checked in and back into a room by about 530. By 6am I had my iv and my fabulous nurse started me on pitocin. I came in dilated to 2cm. We watched HGTV and ate ice chips. Nothing much was going on. At 730, I texted my mother (who I wanted in the delivery room) and told her not to hurry or anything because things were moving slowly. By 745 I was 5 cm dilated and my dr came in to break my water. Up until then I wasn't in any pain. Which was great because i had decided to try not to get an epidural if i could help it. I was having regular contractions but they weren't as bad as contractions I had on my own at home. After my water broke... Things changed!  They were so very intense that we had forgotten all about keeping family informed! Poor Andy! By 830 I was sobbing and crying and begging for an epi during contractions. Then as soon as the contraction died down I would say... No, I don't want an epi! That was just the pain talking! It was pretty funny. I was dying one moment and then laughing about my crying the next. Which I am very sure was lots of fun for Andy! Haha! Well by 9am I was done joking about it and ready for my epi. I was non stop sobbing at this point. Another one of my awesome nurses was coaching me to breathe. Haha I was begging her to turn the pitocin off and telling her I couldn't breathe and begging for someone to help me! I even told her I didn't want to be checked for progress since I was in so much pain. So finally I got set up with my epidural by about 930. My epi was slow to take. So I had to lie on my back still in pain to get checked. Which was aweful but I was happy to hear I was at an 8. At this point Andy remembered to text my mom to Get Up Here! So the nurse turned and walked out of the room to call my dr to tell him I was getting very close. (We had already discussed my fast dilating history.) As soon as she shut the door behind her... I yelled at Andy!! Oh my gosh! Get her back get her back! Nurse! Come back in! My epi had not fully taken and I could tell that baby was coming now! Andy went out and told her to come back... She said she heard my yelling but thought it had to be coming from another room since she just left! Haha she checked me and I was a 10 at this point and the baby was clearly making her way. She left to check on my dr who was driving over from Baptist. I thought I was going to have a panic attack every time she left. When she came back I told her I didn't want her to leave anymore. (Afterwards she teased me about having separation anxiety) I kept feeling like I was having the baby! And I didn't want Andy to deliver her! The nurse for Violet came in and I said to her The baby can't just fall out right? She said well yeah it can.... This just exasperated me more! Haha I was terrified. But luckily there was another dr standing outside just in case mine didnt make it! Dr. Peeler came just in the knick of time.  Then my mom ran in and threw her stuff down and we immediately started pushing. And 2 minutes later at 9:53am she was laying on my belly. It was completely amazing. I was so glad I waited for the epi (once it was over) so that I got to really feel what labor was like. I wouldn't change it for the world. I really bonded with Andy in a new way also! I've never had to be comforted like that before. He let me bury my head in his stomach and cling to his clothes in my wild pain. Sounds crazy but it really was great.

I also had such an easy recovery this time. I have felt pretty amazing. Of course, I'm having times of feeling sleepy, overwhelmed, and ... Unshowered like any mom of a newborn. But mainly I feel very blessed and it has really been a lot of fun loving on my girls. Violet is a very sweet baby. She was so different from Josie when she was born. When they placed Violet on my tummy (Josie was rushed off because of meconium water and got cleaned up first as well), she just laid there intently staring at me and all around her. She was so quiet and blue! I kept asking if she was ok. They had to rough her up quite a bit to get her to cry even a little bit. She was just so sweet and content. Josie screamed bloody murder from the moment she caught her breath and was as pink as can be. I am enjoying getting to know her sweet little personality! She is sleeping pretty well at night as long as she is with me.... Josie just loves her to pieces! She has turned into little mommy. Kissing her and bringing her toys and blankets and pacis. Josie yells  Mommy! Mommy BABY! When the baby starts crying.  I can tell these two are going to be some sweet sisters! We are already feeling the love :) which couldn't make me any more happy!

I want to share something the Lord has convicted us about as a couple the last few years... I want to encourage everyone to remember/think about/realize what a miracle birth is. Children are such a blessing. Some of us have this amazing God-given ability to birth a baby. And it's very easy to take that for granted or try to control it on our terms. We don't take that ability seriously enough in my opinion. We aren't praying for God's will to be done over that area as much as we should. Birth control is so widely used in our culture. I hope that everyone is praying fervently over their use of any form of birth control during their child bearing years. Just pray about it. That's all. Pray about children and how many and when. Ask for God's direction. It's so easy to forget this and just do what makes sense or what we have decided as a married couple. Pray and ask Jehovah to guide you even if it wasn't your original plan. Even if it would be hard. Even if it would be inconvenient to go another way. Pray!!

Thanks for reading!!!