Lydia June

I am no longer pregnant!  Hooray!!!  And we are all so in love with this little 7 pounder we brought home from the hospital.

Here's Lydia's birth story.

I decided to induce at 39 weeks.  It's not something I would have ever imagined myself doing, I'm all for nature taking it's course.  However...  I was so over it.  I was so tired and hot and depressed and cranky and miserable.  Just ask poor Todd.  My doctor offered to induce me since she was going to be out of town when I was due, so I scheduled it with the intention of backing out at the last minute if I felt in any way that it wasn't right for me.  The very moment it was scheduled I felt such tremendous relief that I realized I wanted to go through with it!

I arrived at the hospital at 7:45 a.m. June 17th and after checking in, changing, and having an IV placed, was started on pitocin around 9.  After a couple hours of contractions they became strong enough to warrant an epidural so we requested the anesthesiologist.  He came in and numbed me, then proceeded to shove a large needle through my back, and dug it along the left side of my spine for several minutes while I writhed in the bed and hollered in horrific pain.  I guess the numbing didn't work!!  The rest of the birth experience was pain free, so I feel that it was worth it.  But boy did it hurt!

Then I had several hours of peaceful labor awaiting the inevitable.  Todd and I watched a movie, I took a nap and drifted in and out of dreams of my second child, and the nurses waited on me hand and foot.  It was awesome.

Finally at 4:45 it was time to push, but we had to wait for the doctor to arrive.  She made it in at 5:15 and at 5:21 a little purple baby was lifted from my body!  It took 2.5 pushes and was a piece of cake!  I was so anxious to just look at my child and the instant I saw her I felt a burst of happiness and love and couldn't wait to get my hands on her to drink her in.  Once she was born she let out 2 small cries and then remained mostly silent.  She had inhaled amniotic fluid on her way out and the hospital staff kept trying to get her to cry it out, but she simply wouldn't do it.  She made some little grunts and groans but mostly sat in what seemed to be mystified silence looking around at the world she'd just entered.  It was surprisingly quiet and very peaceful.

Then the blissful "sacred hour" of skin to skin.  She went right on my chest and there she sat for 2 or 3 hours with Todd and I falling deeper and deeper in love with her.  She never cried and started nursing on her own after 30 minutes or so.

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Aaahhhh, the love.  

Love LOVE L.O.V.E. :)  

I felt so content and fulfilled and complete holding this tiny person.  I felt sure I would die happy having experienced even just a sliver of time with her.  Complete bliss!!

Avery came to visit that night and instantly fell in love with Lydia too.  She walked gingerly up to the baby and looked thrilled when we told her it was her baby sister.  She held Lydia and kept saying, "Oh, oh, oh...  It's OK, it's OK, it's OK.  Oh, oh, oh..." and gently petting and kissing Lydia's face.  It was the cutest thing.

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I stayed in the hospital for 48 hours, picked up Avery, then we went home to start our new normal life.  Lydia does cry now, but mostly sits quietly or gives little grunts of complaint before spitting up or pooping.  She is calm, sweet, content, and easy going.  Life is just wonderful with her.  I'll be honest and say that not sleeping is taking a heck of a lot out of me.  But at least I'm not sleeping because I have a new baby. :)

Lydia June.  June is for Todd's grandmother, and Lydia is just because we liked it.

Proud and loving big sister!

Funny ha ha

The beginning!

Baby Avery Helen Hammond

I am a mom!!  Todd is a dad!! 

Avery just chillin'

We welcomed our baby girl, Avery Helen Hammond on October 9th at 9:58 a.m. She weighed 7 pounds 7 ounces, and was 19.5 inches long.  She was five days overdue and oh boy were we excited to meet her!

Here's the birth story:

On October 8th I woke up at 11:30 p.m. with a painful contraction.  An hour later, October 9th at 12:30 a.m. I woke up with another painful contraction, and had one every three minutes from that point on.  They brought me to my knees with pain but I felt OK between them.  Todd and I packed up and went to the hospital at 1:30 a.m.

We arrived at the hospital and checked in.  Half way through checking in another contraction hit and I was on the floor trying to survive it when they asked if I wanted a wheelchair.  I responded that I wanted an epidural!  After it finally ended we walked to the birthing room and got settled.  I was 100% effaced and dilated to a four, which meant we probably had six more hours of labor before we would actually have a baby.  At this point I was really hurting and asked again for the epidural.

I was then told that before I could have the epidural they had to draw my blood, send it to the lab, get the results, call the doctor, wait for him to finish other patients, then begin the 20 minute epidural process!!!!!!!!!  And then wait 20 minutes before the epidural actually did anything!!!!

The contractions were still coming every three minutes.  They were just awful and getting worse- I scrunched myself into a ball in the hospital bed and held on to the bed rails for dear life when they came. All the meditation/ relaxation crap I'd learned and practiced didn't do a darn thing so I threw that out the window and tried to just embrace the pain rather than distract myself from it. That helped a little, but man did they hurt! They seemed to last forever, and toward the end of each one I got clammy, nauseated, and faint and felt like I was going to barf, pass out, or poop. It was not fun.

Finally, FINALLY, the anesthesiologist came in and numbed up my back (ouch that lidocaine hurt like hell too) before placing the epidural.  And finally FINALLY the pain started easing... 

Oh the blissful absence of pain!!!  It is beyond me why anyone with the option would choose to have 10+ hours of excruciating labor pain.  The three hours I'd just gone through were more than enough for me!  My hat goes off to women strong enough to do it naturally, but if you ask me I take Novocaine when having my teeth drilled at the dentist, so why not take an epidural when squeezing a seven pound human out of a ten centimeter hole?!  You naturalists out there have my respect.

Todd and I watched the monitor over the hours and saw the contractions get so strong they were off the chart and I'd sit comfortably and wonder out loud how anyone could do this without pain meds.

And for six hours after the epidural we drifted in and out of sleep while we awaited the inevitable.  It was so peaceful and calm.

Finally around 8 a.m. my doctor came in to break my water, but it broke on it's own with pressure from her fingers checking me.  I was almost fully dilated and so excited!  Just after 9 a.m. we were told it was time to start pushing.  Baby Hammond was ready! 

With Todd and nurse Wendy coaching me, I pushed for about 40 minutes (which was no easy task because I felt like my face was going to explode with the pressure) and finally at 9:58 a.m. baby Hammond's head came out, then the rest of her, and she was placed right on a blanket on my chest to hold and see. 

It was so surreal.  I have never experienced anything like it.  I had just met for the first time a little human that had been growing inside me for 41 weeks.  A human who made me a mother and Todd a father.  A human who was my own child.  A human who had already changed my life forever.



After being cleaned off, weighed, and inspected, the staff handed my baby to me and everyone left the room.  Todd and I and our teeny baby were just sitting alone in this huge room wondering what would happen next.  We just kind of stared at her and tried to take everything in. 

We had a lot of visitors the next couple days.  It was great to have people come in to meet Avery for the first time.

Our little family: