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This is the story of a girl

As promised - finally, Eve's birth story.

Monday, July 17th, 2006.

A "normal" day on bedrest.

My sister, Kay, called me in the morning and asked if I was in labor. Um, no - I'm pretty sure I would know, right? She said that she just didn't feel good, and didn't know why. We have this weird, almost twin-like thing going on with one another sometimes. We show up at family events wearing identical outfits, one will call the other when the other was just thinking of the one and we both hit our heads at the exact same time when getting in the car together- that kind of stuff. Anyway, after my conversation with her, my day progressed in the same, exciting manner as all of my days on bedrest. I don't remember exact details, but I'm sure it consisted of some daytime television and a nap. I did feel a bit crampy, but didn't think anything of it.

5:30 p.m. I was getting antsy as Patrick and Josie were not home yet. Looking back, I was in a pretty crabby mood. Still feeling crampy.

5:50 p.m. Pat and Josie arrived home. We had supper, Pat made turkey burgers. I didn't feel that great, but was still clueless that anything was going on.

7:30 p.m. We were preparing to get Josie ready for bed. I was half sitting, half laying on the couch. Josie was playing by me, I did something that required leaning up, sneezed 3 times, and on the last sneeze felt a painful popping sensation "down there." Uh oh. I didn't gush, but knew that my water had broken. My water broke with Josie, as well, although this time it hurt. I head for the bathroom, and Pat takes Josie to her room for bedtime.

7:45 p.m. I took the phone with me to the bathroom and called the hospital. They said to head in as soon as possible. Pat called his mom, she had her bag packed and headed out the door to come to our house to stay with Josie. Thank goodness she didn't dawdle. I started to have contractions almost immediately after my water broke. Pretty big ones. Pretty painful ones. I paced the floor in the kitchen, stopping occasionally to hold onto the table or stove. Pat flew through the house finishing cleaning up the kitchen and feeding the pets while I got my bag and made sure we had everything we needed. Pat's mom arrives. We give fast and furious instructions for the pets and Josie.

8:05 p.m. We left for the hospital. Big, fat contractions the whole way there. I also was having severe back pain. I didn't experience this with Josie, thank goodness. It was not fun. We briefly discuss the fact that we don't have a name picked out yet. Crap.

8:15 p.m. Arrive at Woodwinds. It's after hours, so we have to use the emergency room entrance to the hospital. We get our room, our nurse, Betsy, and I get into my gown. I remember looking at the clock when I came out of the bathroom, it was 8:30. Betsy checked me, I was dilated to a 6 1/2. The back pain made things particularly unbearable. My breathing exercises were getting me through, and I think that if I was not having back labor, I probably would have made it without any drugs. Betsy asked me what I wanted to do. I wanted relief. She ordered the epidural. Pat and I give a weak attempt at resolving the name issue. Funny sidenote - as we're talking, he asks me something to the effect of "you thought the name Betsy sounded like a cow, right?" I shoot him a death ray look, and twitch my head in the direction of our nurse, who is standing right behind me. Oops. He apologizes profusely. Betsy takes it like a trooper. I find it even funnier considering 1. we were never seriously thinking of the name "Betsy," and 2. the cow is Bessie, not Betsy. I'm not sure where that came from.

9:00 p.m. The anesthesiologist arrives. I am experiencing pain like I have never felt before. Hypnobirth, schmipnobirth - pain is pain, and I was feeling plenty of it. The epidural is in by 9:15, but it takes 10 - 15 minutes to kick in. I'm starting to feel the urge to push. I tell Betsy this, she tries to hide the concern in her face and voice, but I see and hear it. She nonchalantly says that she'd better check me again - I'm fully dilated. My doctor has not arrived yet. She leaves the room discreetly and gets the charge nurse. She says it's just to see how things are going, but I know it's just in case Dr. Rolando doesn't make it in time.

9:30 p.m. Dr. Rolando arrives. I'm doing everything I can to not push. I think it's one of the hardest things I've ever done. I can feel the baby. The epidural finally kicks in. Too little, too late. At least I had it for the pushing part, and the stitches afterwards, but since I felt the contractions all the way up to a 10, I may as well have experienced the full gamut. Doc Ro suits up, sits down, and then we wait. The epidural is finally in full effect, and now I don't feel the contractions. I am still feeling a lot of pressure, so we just go for it. I started my first push at the end of one contraction. Waited for the next, got 2 good pushes in and baby was pretty much out. I guess there was part of the cord and an arm coming out with the head. Dr. Rolando asks if I want to wait for the next contraction, or just go for it. I say "let's just do it," and push. Baby is out. It's 9:46 p.m. It's a girl :) 7 lbs. 5 oz., crying loudly, 19 1/2 inches. No name. That came 2 hours later after much debate between Claudia and Genevieve.


Welcome, Genevieve Kathryn Daly.

God Bless You, Enfamil

Eve just wasn't buyin' what my body was sellin'. After some sleepless nights and tear-filled days, I decided to hang up the breastfeeding hat. And I have to say, thank goodness. Eve is now eating up and plumping up, and we're a much happier household overall. Her bouts of what we assumed was colic have lessened and basically ended, and she will sleep and eat with a little more regularity now. I was beginning to worry that my "baby blues" were possibly a bit more than that, but I think it was just the stress of the breast that was the cause of concern. Piled on top of next-to-no-sleep, and not getting to take a shower for days on end. No good. But things are looking up. They really weren't that bad to begin with, really.

Let's see - fun stuff in the past week:

My high school friend, Kari and her boyfriend, Brent were able to stop by for a visit last Thursday. Wonderful to see her and meet him.

We decided to take a day-trip and travel down to Chatfield for Western Days last Saturday. Josie loved the parade. And mini donuts. And french fries. And her first carnival ride. It was a blast.

Josie is now saying "thank you" all the time. And "all done." They're not perfectly clear, but I know what she's saying ;) And I think she said "bad puppy" the other day when Brewster laid on her blankie. She also will now shake her head up and down to indicate "yes." A very dramatic shaking of the head. She's so fun.

Most little kids enjoy music, as does Josie. But you usually will hear fun kid music from a house with toddlers, but that is not always the case around here. I don't know if I ever wrote about how she loved the song "Iron Man" when she was around 1 year old... and now her love for metal appears to continue. As I was leaving the house on Sunday (all by myself, I must add - wheeeee!) I left Pat and Josie in the kitchen listening to Quiet Riot's "Bang Your Head." *sigh* And yes, they both were actually banging their heads.

Who says a sleep deprivation chamber can't be cozy?

Eve is now 3 weeks old. At this time exactly 3 weeks ago, I was changing into my lovely hospital gown and sliding the belly band into place at Woodwinds, while having intense contractions. For those of you who currently enjoy the luxury of a full night's sleep... please enjoy some for me and don't ever, ever take this precious gift for granted again. :) Wowsers, I don't function well with only 2 hour or less chunks of sleep at a time. Hopefully we're as lucky with this one as we were with Josie and she takes to sleeping through the night at an early age. If not, hopefully I adjust soon. If that ever truly happens!

Let's see - what's new? We had our first Family of Four outing last Friday night and went out to dinner together. It went well - although I spent the last half hour or so walking around the restaurant holding Josie's hand, her new favorite thing to do, while Pat fed a screaming Eve. Perhaps I just have a short memory, but Eve seems so different from Josie. Which she has every right to, it's just weird. She has a very short fuse, and is quite temperamental. She wants what she wants when she wants it, end of story. Don't get me wrong, she's only 3 weeks and still sleeps a lot and is quite sweet... but when she's hungry or has gas, you and the next door neighbors are going to hear about it.

My Josie is adjusting to Life With Eve. She checks to see where she is constantly, and stops what she's doing and points when Evie starts to cry. She's been "giving" her sister things lately - I will find an extra blanket, nuk or activity book in Eve's infant seat or pack 'n play quite frequently. And Eve is now included in Josie's list of goodnight kisses. Pat pointed out that the years of poking have begun as Josie is constantly poking a forefinger at some part of Eve's body. How little sisters and brothers manage not to lose an eye to overzealous older siblings is beyond me.

Jo has been starting to add some words and phrases to her vocab in the last few days. She said "all done," "huggie," and "thank you," and is constantly saying something resembling "wowie" that I can't quite figure out. We spent some time coloring today and she's eager to "help" us whenever she can - for example, tonight she helped us clear the dishes from the supper table and put them in the sink. She adores the kiddie pool and thinks she's big enough to walk around stores on her own now. We spend a lot of time looking at the wheels on lawnmowers and pushing buttons on everything in stores that has buttons. She also has started to show interest in potty training - we put the potty in our bathroom, but my heart and patience and attention just isn't quite there yet. But I guess maternity leave would be the perfect time to get it done.


I know - it's a little late, but here is a preggo picture of me many of you requested. Oh man - I just tried to upload a bunch more pictures... and a blogger error hit. *sigh* Sorry. Ugh. More pictures to come later.
Eve is calling - gotta go for now. :)