My Four

My four little ones...

this picture seems like it was taken 

soooo long ago...

but it was only four months ago!

Seems like Genevieve has been here forever...

The Birth of Genevieve...

A little over 2 months ago

little miss Genevieve Grace 

was born...

This pregnancy was a perfect one compared to my others...

while I was uncomfortable with contractions and pressure

almost the entire time,

I was able to avoid bedrest and pre-term labor until the last 2 weeks...{whoop, whoop!}

At 34 weeks I was put on modified bedrest and given medicine to stop contractions...

We had a miserable 2 weeks because the kids were sick and Jon was working out of the town the whole time.

At 35 weeks 6 days I was feeling real labor contractions and the medicine stopped working. 

Since Jon was still out of town and since the labor with Angelina went scary fast, we chose to spend the night at my parents house just in case.

The contractions had been about 7min apart all day but not super strong. I went to bed thinking all would go away and I would wake up and have another miserable day.

Instead I was woke up at 6am with 4min apart and very strong contractions...

this time I got ready right away to head to the hospital...

and since I was now 36 weeks, the Dr was willing to deliver her at our local hospital.

Shortly before we left for the hospital, I had issues with lot and lots of bleeding...something I had never experienced before...

the nurse later said it was simply the mucus plug.

By the time Jon and I got to the hospital,

I was dilated to a 5 and almost fully thinned.

We spent the next couple hours walking the halls...

I walked until I could barely walk through the contractions...and some of the contractions lasted the entire time it took me to walk the length of the hall...not fun, but worth it.

The next time they checked me I was at an 8 and they broke my waters...

Our room was extremely quiet this time...

only Jon and I were here.

Shortly after the Dr broke the water,

Grandma B and Patrick arrived and were able to see Genevieve be born.

Within about 15min after breaking the water I was dilated to a 10 and felt like pushing.

Just a few pushes later and she was born!

Genevieve Grace was born at 11:53am

She was my tiniest baby...

6lbs 4oz  and only 18" long.

Since Genevieve is classified as a preemie,

we also had to have a M.D. in the room along with 

our Obgyn Dr.

The M.D. Dr who was on call was the same Dr 

who delivered me! Small town!

The Dr remembered my birth and mentioned how I was born 

during his lunch break and he almost didn't make it!

He also told the nursed I give birth just like my mom...

all calm and collected and able 

to carry on a conversation at 10cm!

Its always such a surreal moment when the baby is finally 

born and placed in your arms for the first time...

I'm always in a bit of shock thinking, 

"its over, the baby is fianlly here!"
Being that I hardly had to push with Genevieve,
I was in a bit of shock that the birth was over!

So many emotions run through you in those first few moments.

My biggest worry was her breathing being that she was 

born early...

but she did perfectly and didn't need any oxygen at all!

The Dr warned me that I may not be able to hold her right away 

if she wasn't breathing right,

so it was such a relief when they immediately placed her on my chest!

A few hours later,

Daddy brought all the kids to see the baby...

love at first site!

For months before Genevieve was born, Angelina insisted 

the baby would live at Grammies house because she didn't want the baby at our house...

but one quick look at little Genevieve and she changed her mind 

and has been deeply in love ever since!

Everyone had to inspect every little inch of her...

and we all agreed she was pretty much perfect!

Soon we had a room full of visitors...

and Genevieve got passed around to each person for plenty of loving!

Sadly after all the visitors left,

Genevieve's temp dropped down too low and the nurses had 

to take her to the warming bed for an hour to get her temp back up...

so she spent her first night laying on my chest with heated blankets 

on her to keep her warm.

Apparently preemie babies have a hard time regulating 

body temp and she certainly had a hard time...

even at a little over 2 months old, we keep blankets and 

often a hat on her.

Because of her issues with keeping her body temp up,

we had to stay an extra day in the hospital...

which turned out to be a good thing because her 

bilirubin was too high and she had turned a lovely shade of 

yellow...

So we stayed in the hospital several more hours so she 

could spend 4 hours under the lights...
and she had to have her first blood draw which had me 
fighting tears to hear to scream!

She hated being naked and hated laying on her belly

and hated not being cuddled...

she she cried a lot...

and the kids were all sad to see their baby

so upset!

They made sure she had a paci in her mouth and kept 

gently patting her back.

When she was done with the lights, we were finally 

free to go home!

We carefully dressed Genevieve in her special 

going home outfit and her special bonnet...

her colour was still pretty yellow...

and she was still super sleepy...

but it felt so good to finally be going home!

So tiny in her giant carseat!

She ended up losing quite a bit of weight in the hospital

and was only 5lbs 11oz when we left. 

~

Our little Christmas baby...

so thankful you are here and you are a perfect little baby...

Fall...

This will be a post of our fall photo shoot with
no words...
because its getting late and my brain is officially 
shut off tonight.
I was getting ready to post a newer post,
but figured since this was all ready to be posted 
I better get it posted...
you don't even want to know how many 
posts I have sitting in the 
"never posted" file...
Thanks to Instagram, blogging has become a 
thing of the past for me.
Kinda sad though because I love all the little memories 
I have written about on the blog.
Perhaps someday I will blog again...
Life is an always changing thing and blogging is just
not very high on the priority list right now...
~
Pictures from fall...
Enjoy
Elsie Jane-7 {and a half}
James Hawthorne-5
Angelina Viviana-almost 3
{and a 20week belly picture of Genevieve}