A Sampling

A toaster and Mariah's first attempt at her name (No help or guidance from me).

Flowers and her name.

A dinosaur.

Flowers, grass, and her name.

8 Days Old

This little lady was due today . . . .

Cuteness

Drawing "gircles."

Sally's Arrival

Marian came down yesterday and took Elaine and Mariah back to her house for a few days. Bless her! Mom and Dad are coming this weekend and will pick up the girls and bring them home. So, with just one little bambino, and with a few naps behind me, I have some time to write about little Sarah-Sally's arrival.

Disclaimer: Because this is my journal right now, I will include details here that may or may not be of interest to you. Some things might frankly be TMI. Consider yourself warned.

The Saturday before Sally was born, I lost part of the mucus plug. (I included that gory detail right up front so any queasy readers can know exactly what level of detail you might be facing here.) I thought she'd probably come soon because with Mariah, my water broke the day after I lost the plug, and with Elaine, she was born a day or 2 later.

For the next few days, I had contractions off and on, but nothing very organized.

My mom (wonderful) flew in on Monday to help get things ready for Sally's arrival. She's also driving out with Dad this weekend, but she used her flyer miles to come last week too. It was perfect!

I had a midwife appointment the day before Sally's birth. I was dilated to a 3-4 and 90% effaced. I had been having some contractions, but still nothing organized. That night (Wednesday, 19th), just after putting the kids to bed, I started having contractions a few minutes apart. I took a bath, and they persisted, so I was pretty sure I wouldn't make it through the night. I was wrong. I went to sleep, and the night was quiet.

Thursday morning was quiet. But Thursday afternoon, contractions started again. I also lost a lot more mucus and had a tiny bit of bloody show. If I was standing or up, contractions were every few minutes. If I sat down, they stopped. This pattern continued until after 7pm, when the girls went to bed.

At about 7:30pm, I decided to actively try to get things going. I figured I wouldn't last more than a couple days for sure, and my mom was flying home the next afternoon. I really wanted her here for the delivery. So, Mike and I walked around the block twice. I had contractions the whole time, with 8 really strong peaks (although, I could still walk through them).

When we got home, I sat down to see if things quieted down. They did for a few minutes, but at about 8:20pm, while sitting at the computer, I had a really strong contraction, and I knew we were going . . . and going fast!

Everything was already in the car, and we had arranged for our neighbor/landlord to come stay if we went at night. Mike ran next door and got her, and at 8:30pm, off we went.

I had really hard contractions all the way to the hospital. Christine had sent me the Affirmations CD from her Hypnobirthing stuff. (I had planned on reading all the material and really practicing for this one, but alas . . . that didn't happen.) I listened to the CD all the way to the hospital (and during labor and delivery); I was amazed at how relaxed I could make myself be through contractions. I knew going into it that, with my body, excruciating back labor is basically a given, and I was right; but I was still able to relax quite a bit.

By the time we arrived at the hospital, contractions were closer together, and I couldn't walk. Mike wheeled me in to check in while Mom parked the car. We checked in at urgent care (hospital procedure). After filling out forms (this hospital has no pre-registry . . . lame), they wheeled me to a room where a nurse checked my progress. Contractions were close enough together that I didn't even get into a gown. I just stripped from the waist down, and the nurse checked me. I was dilated to an 8 and fully effaced.

The nurse then told me she needed to keep me there to monitor the baby for 30 minutes. (You're joking, right? I'm dilated to an 8, obviously in full transition, and you don't want to send me to labor and delivery for another 30 minutes? Ha.) I asked, "Can I refuse that?" She looked shocked (and possibly a little bit offended) and said, "Yeah, I guess, but I do at least need to put a saline lock in." I said, "No thanks; I just need to get to labor and delivery." (Ok, maybe I wasn't quite that polite. Maybe there wasn't a "thanks" in there.) I assured the nurse that the baby was moving between contractions, and she was fine. "Just get me to labor and delivery!"

So, a few minutes later, after checking to see if a room was available, I was wheeled to labor and delivery. I immediately asked them to start filling the tub. I went to the bathroom and then got in the bath. I knelt with my upper body draped over the side of the tub. Mike sat on one side, and Mom on the other, putting pressure on my back and hips during each contraction, which by now were very close and very strong and very much back labor. (Thank goodness for an expert husband and mom.)

I labored in the bath for about an hour; the nurse checked me at one point, and I was complete, my water had broken, and the baby was at a +1. A few minutes later, I started pushing, and we decided I better get out of the bath (they have a no-water-birth policy).

A few minutes after 10pm, I got out of the bath and got on my hands and knees on the bed. I was pushing with each contraction now, and I was so relieved. With both Mariah and Elaine, pushing felt good, and it only took about 5-10 minutes. With Sally, my relief soon turned to frustration. I was pushing and pushing, and I could tell she was not moving. Labor was moving higher and higher up my back, and I could just tell we weren't making progress.

After almost 45 minutes of pushing, Mom suggested I turn around and try squatting. I did. On the next push, a secondary water sac burst, and Sally descended all the way to crowning. On the second push (very slow and controlled, thanks to Christine's hypnobirthing advice), her head was out; one more, and she was here.

Man, that was hard! Apparently, that secondary water bubble got lodged in the birth canal, ahead of Sally. Thus the pushing and pushing with no progress. I have a very sore sacrum, but only a very tiny tear that didn't even require stitches. Thanks again to hypnobirthing and Christine's expertise!

I'm 3 for 3 with no midwife in the room. The nurse and Mike caught Mariah (barely). With Elaine and Sally, I was better and telling them, "She's here," before the baby actually came all the way out, and the nurses were able to catch them. But, I have yet to deliver with a midwife present. And I even warn them that when I go, I go fast. Oh well.

Sally cried for quite a while after she was born. The whole thing was pretty traumatic for her, I guess. When she calmed down, though, she was a champion nurser. After Mike cut the umbilical cord, she nursed for quite a while. We had to hang out in the delivery room for a couple hours; they wanted to get 3 good vital checks on Sally before moving us. We finally got settled in the recovery room at about 2:30am. Not much sleep that night. (Mom left just after midnight to relieve Mickie. Mike spent the night with me and Sally.)

Mike went to class at 8:00 Friday morning. Nice to be right on campus. At about noon, he came back. Mom brought Mariah and Elaine to visit, and then they all took Mom to the airport to fly home. What a blessing it was to have her here!

Friday night after the girls were in bed, Mike arranged for my visiting teacher, Twila Brim, to come stay so he could come back and spend a couple hours with me.

Saturday, after the girls' naps, Mike loaded them up and came to pick me up.

And here we are.

Sarah ("Sally") Johnson George

She's here!

Sarah Johnson George arrived at 10:45 last night, weighing in at 7 lbs 4 oz and measuring 18 1/2 inches long. We call her "Sally."

More pictures and details to come after I get some sleep . . . .

First "People"

Mariah drew her first "recognizable" faces today:

My Almost-two-year-old

No worries. She's also showing some good signs of being almost 2. She's exhibiting more and more independence (probably partially due to her age, and mostly due to being neglected by her mother who has a crazy life right now).

She gets the coloring stuff all by herself, decides where she wants to color, and climbs there herself.

She carries a stool around to reach whatever she might want, including to sit on the love sac for a little snack, to read, or to watch "Baby Einsteins."

Official Oklahomans

We've now experienced our first real tornado siren. We, thankfully, did not experience any of the actual tornadoes. On Monday, over 30 tornadoes hit Oklahoma, causing major widespread damage, 7 deaths (last number I heard), and lots of injuries. Pretty sobering to have it happen so close to home.

This was one of the first tornadoes; it was right here in Yukon, and according to weather maps, passed very close to our house. We didn't see it; we were hunkered in our bathroom.

Here's another shot of the same tornado. This water tower is about a mile directly west of our house.

Pretty awe-inspiring.

This was the biggest one. It hit about 20 miles southeast of us and did extensive damage.

Softball sized hail, also about 20 miles southeast of us, caused crazy damage. One of Mike's school buddy's brother-in-laws had a hail stone go through his back windshield and knock the speaker into the trunk. Other homes had these come right through the roof. Crazy.

And, finally, a reminder that God loves us.

Clydesdale Farm

A little over a month ago, we took the girls to a Farm where they raise and train Clydesdale horses. The farm is open to the public, and it's free! They have some little Shetland ponies and a donkey the kids can pet, and you can just open the horses' feeding gates to pet the HUGE Clydesdales. The girls really liked it, until Laney's fingers got nibbled by a pony because she tried to feed it a minuscule little flower. She was kind of nervous after that. (Two days later, a goat at the petting zoo in Wichita bit her fingers. Not her week.)

She thinks she's ready!

Her mom is not . . . .

Happy Mother's Day

I'm thankful for the opportunity I have to be a mom. "When I grow up, I [still] want to be a mother . . . ." Thanks to the moms in my life. I love you.

Number Three

I've been terrible at documenting this pregnancy, so I'm going to be brave and post a prego pic. This is me at 36+ weeks pregnant. (I'm now 37+ weeks.)

And here are the ultrasound pictures from last week. (They wanted to do another ultrasound because I'm measuring pretty small. The little one is just fine. They estimated her weight at 6 lbs. 4-5 oz. Not bad, with 3 weeks to go.)

I love this one of her little puckered lips and nose.

I didn't know this was possible in utero, but she's blowing a bubble! She was sticking her tongue out and back in over and over again.

Yep. She's still a girl.

Dancing

More Cute Reading Pics

I took these a long time ago, but just haven't gotten around to posting. I love my girls!

Sliding

Elaine has no fear! I learned she loves slides when, a couple months ago, we went to a playground with a pretty high, pretty long slide. Elaine asked me to help her climb the ladder. I lifted her up, she walked across the platform, and before I could prepare myself, she launched herself, headfirst, down the slide. I barely made it to the bottom to catch her. She laughed and asked to go again . . . and again and again and again. I wish I had had my camera there that day.

Here are some pictures and a couple videos of her in our backyard. Mike set the camera on auto to take several pictures in a row, so photos 3-9 are a sequential view of one time down the slide.

The Truth