It has been so fun watching Savannah develop over the past 6 months. She is our first baby to roll over before she crawled! At 4 months, she started flipping over onto her tummy and has slept that way ever since. Thank heavens we got a breathing monitor, or I would have been a paranoid wreck. SO worth the money to have a good night's sleep!! She catches on to things so quickly! She can push herself up on her arms and pivot around to reach a favorite toy. Then, about a month ago, we sat her down on the floor, and she just stayed sitting, easy as can be like she had been doing it forever! We were amazed at her "skilz". A few weeks ago she started saying "Mama" when she was sad and wanted to call for me. The other day I'm pretty sure I heard a "Dada" too. Just to have it out there and documented...she said "Mama" first! hahaha!
I haven't written anything (hardly) about my sweet new baby, Savannah; either here or in my journal. It's time to change that!
Here's what happened:
Around my due date, I got really, really sick. Deep, hacking cough, weakness, head exploding...it was awesome. I cuddled up with a heating pad and humidifier for about 2 weeks... but, anyway...The day after my due date, I was so miserable and in so much pain just from the pregnancy itself, that I broke down sobbing in my poor doctor's office, telling him that I was done and couldn't hold on to my positive attitude anymore. He probably gets that a LOT. So, he called up the hospital to put me in the queue to be induced. They called me late the next night to see if I wanted to come in then. I was exhausted, I was even sicker than I had been the day before, and I knew I could not do it, so I declined but asked to be kept on the list. I'm a naturalist at heart, and I really didn't want to be induced if I could help it...but that was REALLY battling my desire to not be pregnant anymore. A week went by and I didn't hear anything, but by the time my next appointment rolled around, I was feeling a whole lot better. (I made a huge effort to be apologetic and cheerful for that one.) The next morning at 8:00, the hospital called to see if I could come in right away. I said "Heck, yes!", grabbed my bag and my husband, called my mom so she could watch the kids, and 
Once at the hospital, it took a while to get all set up. We were hoping they would just break my water and I would labor naturally, but the doctor wasn't going to be able to come for another 4 hours. The nurse proposed that we try just the slightest bit of pitocin to get me started and then see where we were when the doctor got there. Paul and I conferred, then agreed to that. It turned out to be an AWESOME experience. My best labor by FAR! The only thing I wanted out of the whole labor deal was a healthy baby and a nice experience, which I didn't feel was too much to ask since all of my other births had been pretty horrific. So, after 2 hours with a really low dose of pit, the doctor came in and broke my water (gross!). We stopped the pitocin and everything went great from there. We had asked my good friend Melanie to come and be our photographer and labor support (listening to Paul talk to someone really helps me cope, for some weird reason), and she turned out to be the biggest blessing during this. 
We decided to wait until I was in active labor to call her over, because that would have just been boring for her, but once we really got going, she was there. I pretty much chanted my way through the whole thing...("ow, ow, ow, ow") or whatever word I happened to be using to respond to someone at the time. Paul was an absolute hero, losing major circulation in his arm while I clung to him and walked the halls ("sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry"). Melanie is really good at reading my non-verbal queues that even my Paul didn't see, so between the two of them, I felt totally taken care of. I also experienced a huge blessing right around the time that it got so painful I could hardly bear it and started praying ("Father, help, Father, help, Father, help"); there is about a 30 minute time period of which I have no memory. It was a sweet, tender mercy at that point. 
My helpers could tell during this time that I was getting close because every question they asked me, I was completely unable to process ("I don't know, I don't know, I don't know"). Melanie ran out into the hall for the doctor at this point and we had a quick, extremely painful pushing session,
There had been meconium when they broke my water (did I mention--gross!?), so they whisked the baby up to the little carrier thing to check her out while the doctor worked on other, messy, stuck things and I did more screaming...which scared the cookies out of my new baby. Melanie ran over to comfort my Savannah while Paul held my hand and helped me cope. It all ended just in time too. Melanie had to leave for play rehearsal at 6:30 and Savannah was born at 6:29, which I thought was very considerate of her. She was 9 lbs, 12 oz and very long too, with these sweet fat cheeks that rested on her chest, and more hair than any of my other babies had possessed before the age of one. She had a little stork bit between her eyebrows, one over her left eye and one on the back of her head. 
All of my girls have had at least one, so it was like a sweet little stamp of recognition when I saw them. Her hair has red highlights that you can only see in the sun, and, at six months, her eyes still haven't decided quite which color they are going to be. Some people say they are blue, some say brown. I'm leaning more towards blue, myself...but it's her grin that really sticks out. She is the smiling-est baby I ever saw. She was so big, that when my brother-in-law Jay first saw a picture of her, he exclaimed, "That's not a baby! That's a full-grown woman!" I still laugh about that.
Our new baby had a rough first day and was pretty sad. She would eat okay, but it wasn't until after Paul's mom visited that we really got some results. She took one look at my sweet baby and realized that she was tongue tied. They clipped the bottom of her tongue and she has eaten like a champ ever since. Loving the benefits of having a lactation consultant in the family! 
After a terrible night's sleep for Paul, he left us in the hospital for the day so he could go home and sleep, then get some things done. Savannah and I spent a quiet day resting and bonding. I just loved looking at her! It had been nearly 4 years since my last baby, and you forget how sweet it is to lock eyes with a newborn and watch them just drink you in. After a nice long, quiet day in the hospital (during which I got a call telling me I had gotten the promotion to Lead at work and another call saying Paul had gotten the teaching job at Charter--we should stay in the hospital more often!), several visitors, and a couple of calls to Paul reminding him to come and get us, we went home.
My parents, with whom the kids had been staying, had brought them all over before school to come meet their new sister. They were so sweet and just loved her right away. (The first thing Audrey said was, "NOW, am I four?!" because we had told her that her birthday was after the baby came. She was very disappointed at our answer.)
The kids were ecstatic to have a baby at home, and I LOVED having Mom come stay with me for a week to help out. This week is so wonderful, and I really look forward to it every time I have a child. We stay up late, take turns napping, and just generally enjoy the baby, the other kids and each other. My mom is my absolute best friend besides my husband, and is just so fun to be around. It makes this week especially fun! This time was a little bit more challenging because of how much help my dad needs now, and how hard it was for my mom to get away. We were so, so blessed to have family members pitch in to help, and my sister to come stay with him over the weekend. That week with Mom was the best gift they could possibly have given me.
She has truly been a joy to have in our home. She is remarkably happy and smiley (she started smiling at only a few days old), only fussing when she gets really hungry or it's nap time. There is no "fussy period" at any time during the day. The kids get a lot of joy out of playing with her, getting her to laugh (Kobe is the master at this by making silly faces and saying "Boogally Boo!") I love, love, love this sweet-tempered, mild little love of a baby!!!
1 comment:
Cute pictures! I keep forgetting to look at any blogs since Pinterest came along so it's good to catch up!
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