June 16-23

You're so jealous of my new meal planning calendar.  I bought a regular K-2 change the date calendar, made my own cards, and voila!  I wrote meals on one side of cards (a different color for each kind of meat and green for veggie) with ingredients listed on the back so that I know what I have to buy.  I put the cards in with the ingredients showing and when I have everything then I flip them around and Bryan can rearrange if he wants to.  When we're done with the leftovers, the cards go to pockets at the bottom of the chart so that we don't reuse the same meal a bunch of times.  I also made taller cards with numbers on them to let me know if we're having company (+1 to +a crowd) and cards that let me know when we're traveling and don't need a meal.

One of my garage sale finds this week was a little slide.  Check another thing off of Bryan's "fulfilled childhood" list.  Olivia thinks it's pretty much the greatest thing ever and refers to it as "guul liie."  She's always sad when we make her get off her liie so that she can come in to eat dinner.




Last weekend was the parish picnic at Bryan's home church, so we went to his parents' house to join in the festivities.  There was a kids' tent where Olivia won some prizes by picking rubber ducks from a wading pool, pulling suckers out of styrofoam, and playing plinko.  The ducks were her favorite until she learned how plinko worked.  Her biggest prize was a beanie baby (remember when those were supposed to be huge collector's items?) that she got because the end of her sucker had a dot on it.  Bryan wisely steered her away from that game afterwards so that she wouldn't be sad the next time she pulled a sucker out and wasn't allowed to choose a stuffed animal.  There was also a balloon man (the same one that was at the wedding), and he made Olivia another swan hat.  Bryan just asked him to make his favorite hat, and that's what he gave her.  Olivia was thrilled.

My parents stopped through to see us a couple of times on their way to and from Louisville for a conference.  That was fun, and Olivia enjoyed reading books and coloring with Oma.  My mother's reaction to seeing my meal calendar in person was everything I had hoped it would be.  :)

Pictures:

June 9-16

We went to another wedding last Saturday, and Olivia was tearing up being super cute on the dance floor.  Bryan's sister, Keshia, was at this reception with us and she and Murry were dancing with Olivia.  Olivia was copying everything that Aunt Keshia did, although she was only able to do either arm movements OR leg movements, not both.  Next wedding I'm going to remember a video camera.  To add to the excitement, Murry took both girls over to the guy making balloon animals and got them hats.  Olivia was a swan and Gretchen was a duck.  :)

Not to be left out in the moving and shaking department, Gretchen moves and shakes.  Well, at least moves. She scoots on her back and can also rotate in a circle.  Little (if any) of it is intentional.

I've been wanting to start running again, but lacking the little push to actually get going.  When I visited my parents last, though, I found out that Josef and Alison are going to run a half marathon this October.  I've always wanted to run a half marathon!  Push found.  ...Until I discovered that their half marathon cost $95 to enter.  Curious as to how this compared to other half marathons in other parts of the country, I did some searching.  What did I find?  Springfield is having a half marathon at half the price!  The bad news: it's in mid-August.  That doesn't seem like nearly enough time to get ready.  I did some more looking.  Eight-week training plans for beginners are abundant.  It's fate!  I came home, bought running shoes, and began running.  Two days later I had to stop because of knee pain.  Apparently all joints loosen up during pregnancy and can take up to 4 months to get back to normal.  Longer if you're nursing.  How am I supposed to be ready for a half marathon by mid-August at this rate?!  After calling my running experts (mom and dad), I took a few days off and started again at a painfully slow pace with hardly any mileage.  It's going well so far, though, and mom thinks building up my distance shouldn't be too hard providing I can get my knees in a cooperative mood first...

Bryan took some videos of Olivia dancing (not her wedding moves, unfortunately).  Apparently she had some really good dances going BEFORE he pulled out the camera.  He claims you could actually tell that she was doing "Five Little Monkeys" and "I'm a Little Teapot."  In the videos we have, though... not so much.  Listen carefully for the words and then maybe you'll be able to see what the actions are supposed to be.  :)

I should try to get videos of Olivia singing sometime.  She sings along with several songs, either when she's watching videos or when we're singing with her.  Her pronunciation is actually pretty good when she sings; maybe she should sing all the time instead of talking.

A couple of weeks ago, Bryan got put on a daily 5:00 phone meeting.  Now instead of being home by 5:15 every day, he's home at 6, 6:30, 7:10...  It really depends on the day, and he's got this meeting on his calendar for the foreseeable future.  It makes my whole "dinner at 6" plan a little more exciting.  The nice part is that he's been able to take more leisurely lunches to compensate.  He also has to work the occasional late evening (going in between 9 and 11) and sometimes Saturdays.  This added complication managed to keep him from visiting my parents with the girls and me last time we went up.  It's a bummer, but he can't really get out of any of it.  His boss says all the extra work he's been having to do is good leverage for the raise he asked for, though...

Pictures and Videos:

June 2-9

The girls and I went up to visit my parents last weekend.  Bryan was supposed to come with us, but ended up having to work Friday night.  He was also told he'd have to work Saturday, but then didn't have to go in. More on that whole situation next week.  Anyway.  Olivia, Gretchen, and I went up Friday afternoon and left Monday morning, so we got a few more hours to visit with people.  We also got to see my dad's parents, who were happened to be visiting at the same time.

Olivia refers to herself as "the girl."  Whenever she wants to do something or needs to take her turn (she's all about taking turns and making sure everyone gets their chance -- even Gretchen), she talks about the girl and points to herself.  Meet the Barhorsts: Mama, Dedah, Bebe, and Girl.  :)

Gretchen apparently has exactly five states of being: Bebe nees (sneeze), Bebe pit (spit), Bebe appy (happy), Uh-oh Bebe, and Shh Bebe.  Actually, that seems about right.

This week I got an actual smile from Gretchen!  Just a little one, but I smiled at her and she smiled back.  :)  Also, she's beginning to make happy baby noises.

Gretchen has a bad case of baby acne.  I remember Olivia getting the little pimples around 6 weeks old, but I don't remember it being this bad.  I think Gretchen's skin issues are aggravated by her spit.  Imagine being allergic to your own spit.  :(

Friday I convinced Olivia to wear a ponytail so that she could be "like mama."  After getting the back of her hair into the ponytail, I still had to use a barrette to keep her bangs out of her eyes.  She looked super cute, though.  Pictures below.

Another wedding this weekend, and then we're wedding-free until August (but only because we have to miss one in July).

Pictures:

May 26-June 2

Olivia can use a spoon.  She still has a tendency to spill a bit, especially liquids, but this is easily solved by tying a towel around her neck.  So every morning I put cereal and milk in a bowl, tie a towel around Olivia's neck, and hand her a spoon.  She's good enough that as long as she has a towel I don't have to change her clothes after she eats breakfast.  This newfound talent has made her more insistent that she feed herself (except for when she's being difficult and requires that someone else feed her), which is nice for freeing up my hands during meals.

I want this spot for my garden.

I want a garden, but don't really have much sunlight in my yard.  I have lovely trees, but very little sun.  My in-laws were over a few weeks ago to hang out and help with yard work.  Steve told me I should be able to put flowers in the corner in front of my house and tomatoes along the side of the shed in the back.  I'm skeptical, but who am I to argue with the son of generations of farmers?  So after we planted the ten flowers that Murry brought for Olivia's gardening pleasure, I bought some perennial dianthus and a hydrangea.  Both tags said partial shade was okay.  I also bought 4 tomato plants (their tags did NOT say shade was okay!).  All my plants are in the ground and getting... hardly any sun at all.  We shall see how this goes.  I think next year I'll just talk to my neighbors and ask if I can plant a garden in the nice sunny section on their side of our shed.

Gretchen was one month old last week, and I forgot to mention it!  This week she hit 5 weeks (less exciting, but more on time as posts go).  She's getting bigger and staying awake more, although she still doesn't do anything when she's awake.  Babies are kind of boring...  :)

...But getting less boring!  Gretchen has reached the point where some of her smiles are trying to be real ones!  Most of them are still gassy smiles and/or in her sleep, but every now and again she has a little tiny real smile.  :)

When Gretchen was first born, we noticed that she had a dimple on the back of each ear.  Bryan and I went through our relatives, trying to figure out whose ears Gretchen had.  As it turns out, neither of us pays much attention to the ears of others.  :-P  I felt the back of my ears, and asked Bryan if Gretchen's ears were like mine.  He checked, and assured me they were not.  Thus the hunt began.  We asked my family, we asked Bryan's family...  No one could place Gretchen's ears.  Until Saturday.  On Saturday, I was discussing this with Murry, and happened to brush my hair over my ear with my hand.  She looked at me and exclaimed, "Gretchen has YOUR ears!"  Mystery solved.  Also, a lesson was learned: Bryan's powers of observation need work.

Last Saturday we went to a wedding.  The last time we went to a wedding, Olivia was just barely walking and was generally content to be held during the reception.  Eight months later, Olivia is a walking pro and has places she needs to be!  Namely, the dance floor.  After being coaxed onto the floor the first time, she didn't want to leave.  Her dance moves aren't tremendously diverse yet: mostly she spins in circles until she gets so dizzy that she falls down.  Occasionally she runs in slightly larger circles.  Every now and again she would sway her hips and/or throw her arms up in the air.  And once she saw a little boy jump into the air and kick his feet, so she jumped (without leaving the ground) and then marched in place, which I guess is as close as she could come to kicking.  It was spectacular to watch.

Olivia desperately wants to help with Gretchen.  When Gretchen cries, Olivia puts her pacifier back in (usually upside down), covers her with a blanket (but not the face!), and tries to get her to hold the toy keys Bryan bought for Gretchen to play with.  The other day, Gretchen was crying and Olivia went through her routine.  The problem?  The closest blanket was under Gretchen.  Olivia tried to pull it out from underneath her sister so that she could cover Gretchen up.  Good thing I was watching, or Gretchen would have face-planted on the kitchen floor.  Also, twice I've caught Olivia trying to pick Gretchen up; guess I can't leave both of them out of my sight at the same time.

Pictures:

May 19-26

The building that got torn down is being rebuilt as a Tim Horton's.  Dad, you should come visit more often.  We (will soon) have a Tim Horton's within walking distance.

It was suggested that I get a video of Olivia saying some of her new words.  Unfortunately, videos have become harder since Olivia started wanting the camera.  I managed, though.  Below are a couple of videos, though they're more audio than video since I had to keep the camera out of her visual range in order to get her to perform.  :)

Gretchen is in 0-3 month clothes.  Some of the newborn stuff would still fit, I think, but it was getting too hard to snap sleepers at the bottom, especially over cloth diapers in the dark.  A couple of the roomier sleepers engulf her, but for the most part she doesn't look like her clothes are too big.  Onesies and pants are a good choice, because even if the onesie is a little big, the pants cover up the extra length.  :)

And speaking of Gretchen, she's a pacifier baby.  At least for now.  Olivia used a pacifier occasionally for about 2 months and then didn't bother anymore.  Gretchen, though, has been trying to suck her thumb since she was born and is perfectly content to take a pacifier, at least until she can get those pesky hands to stay in her mouth where they belong!  Olivia helpfully tries to put the pacifier back in Gretchen's mouth (albeit upside down) when it falls out, although she's not above claiming it for her own mouth if Gretchen refuses to accept it too many times.

Since Olivia was born, Bryan and I have been eating dinner after she goes to bed.  It's just easier to prepare a meal without her help.  When she started eating solids, we started making sure we put some of each meal aside for her to eat for dinner the next night.  I knew I'd eventually have to start having dinner ready at an earlier time, but I figured it'd be a few years.  However.  Bryan comes home from work starving, we don't have quick, easy snacks in our house, Olivia likes to sample whatever anyone around her is eating, and dinner is so much less exciting when one could have cheese and crackers or jelly sandwiches every single night.  We tried moving Olivia's dinner up and turning the "snack" into dessert (back when we had pudding around), but that didn't work so well.  And Bryan didn't like the idea of waiting to eat his snack until Olivia goes to bed.  So this week I told him I'd have meals ready by 6, if he thought he could wait the hour without expiring.  It's been going pretty well, especially if I can find a way to get Olivia involved (one night I had her break up all the spaghetti noodles into little pieces while we waited for water to boil -- keeps us from having to cut her spaghetti for her and keeps her busy for a long time).

Pictures and Videos:

May 12-19

When our friends the Kleins had their second baby, they mentioned that Eva looks like a giant.  I've decided that while Olivia does look rather large compared to Gretchen, she doesn't seem really any bigger than usual.  She does, however, look OLDER to me.  Overnight she turned from a baby to a little kid.

Gretchen seems calmer than I remember Olivia being.  This could be because Olivia never got a chance to prove how calm she was because we were able to pick her up anytime she started fussing.  Or it could be because the Olivia that is at the forefront of my memory these days is a whirlwind of toddler activity, which is pretty much the definition of "not calm."  OR, it could be because Gretchen has quickly learned that she should make as little noise as possible lest she incur the tender ministrations of the aforementioned whirlwind.  Whatever the reason, Gretchen seems like a very agreeable and easily placated baby, for which I am grateful.  :)

I've updated my bracelet to include Gretchen.  :)  April is a pretty boring month as birthstones go, but I added a crystal birthstone bead (because diamonds don't come at knock-off prices) and a letter G.  Also, sparkly bracelets don't apparently take very good pictures.  Especially when the camera is really a phone.  Oh well.



There's a building near our house that recently got demolished.  It was a nice enough building, so Bryan and I assume that someone bought the property and wanted to put something else there.  Regardless, the machinery was out and the building is now gone.  This construction site is along one of the paths I normally take when walking with the girls, so we've seen various types of machinery out every day.  It turns out that Olivia is very excited to see the big trucks.  We stood on the sidewalk and just watched them work for about 20 minutes one day.  That was the day the excavators were out (I was calling them backhoes, but they didn't have the plow part), clearing the rubble and putting it in dump trucks.  Another day we saw bulldozers and road rollers (I think they were tandem rollers) pushing dirt into the hole where the building had been and smoothing it down.  As you can see, I've been researching my construction machinery.  Who knew I'd need that knowledge with girls?!

For Mothers' Day this year, Bryan added himself to our family.  A couple of years ago he got me a willow tree figurine of a mother holding a child.  For Fathers' Day that year I looked for a dad to add to our mantle, but couldn't find a male without a child attached.  Now that we have Gretchen, though, we need another child anyway.  :)  Bryan and Olivia picked out the Father and Daughter figure to add to our little family group.  The bad news?  I need to think of another gift for Fathers' Day...


Pictures and Video:

May 5-12

Gretchen Bernice
Baptized Saturday, May 4, 2013 (Easter Vigil service)
Sponsors: Keshia Barhorst and Josef Fenton
Patron Saint: St. Berenice of Syria (October 4)
http://oca.org/saints/all-lives/2013/10/04
http://www.catholiconline.com/saints/saint.php?saint_id=2957

Bryan's workplace is running a survey.  It's short and easy.  If you get a chance, go to this link and when it asks (in one of the last questions) who referred you, put Bryan Barhorst in the box.  Everyone who fills it out and lists him as the referrer gives him another entry in a drawing for $50.  If you fill out the survey, let me know in a comment and I'll give you 5 points.  Everyone wins!  https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/NXNHDDC 

Olivia's vocabulary has exploded recently.  Just this past week or two she's picked up book, eat, not, more, feet, fork, duck, chalk, bread, sit, food, and koala.  She has a word for "empty," but it doesn't sound like empty.  Maybe she's saying "nothing"?  Also, Bryan says she told him, "stay there, be right back" the other day.  Most of her new words are relatively indistinct still, so we rely on context clues, but they're definitely consistently there.  Her toddler dialect doesn't pronounce the letters f and s (weird, since she can say both those sounds), so it took me a while to figure out why she kept grabbing Gretchen's toes and saying, "deet."  We also have "cork" (fork), "dood" (food), and "dit" (sit).

Gretchen had her "somewhere between one and two weeks old" checkup on Monday.  The doctor said we were aiming to have her back at her birth weight of 8 lbs by that day.  The little fatty was 8 lbs, 8 oz.  No worries about weight gain here.  It also means that I don't need to be stressed about the fact that she occasionally spits up what appears to be an entire meal (or perhaps everything she's eaten for the past two days).  Obviously she's retaining enough.  :)

And speaking of spitting up meals...  I was so hopeful that Gretchen was learning to regulate her intake at the end of my last post.  In the two days after I wrote that post, she spit up large amounts three separate times, managing to get (1) Bryan, me, Josef's bed (2) Jacob, my Grandma and (3) her carseat.  She's since been better, but I hesitate to be too openly optimistic, lest I set her off again.

Olivia got her first haircut while we were visiting my parents.  My mom trimmed the back of Olivia's hair while Olivia put her head on my shoulder and sobbed.  I'm relatively certain the sobbing had less to do with the loss of hair and more to do with the fact that we made her sit mostly naked on a stool while said hair was removed.  She also got her bangs trimmed, although that was harder because my mom didn't want to accidentally poke out Olivia's eye.  The resultant look works better with the shorter-than-normal-because-she-pulled-them-out sides and is pretty cute, if I do say so myself.  :)

Pictures:

April 26-May 5

Happy Easter to my Orthodox readers!  Happy almost Ascension to everyone else!

Be sure to check out the post about Gretchen's birth if that kind of stuff interests you.

Points were awarded for Baby Guesses.  Nobody got enough right to earn any bonus points, but William got the randomly generated bonus:
Jillian - 2
William - 7
Alison - 2
Justine - 2
Norie - 2
Olivia - 2
Eva - 2
Kara - 2
Jacque - 4
Bryan - 4
Scott - 3
Julie - 2
Steph - 2

Olivia hardly ever spit up.  She drooled like a champion, but wasn't very spitty.  Gretchen, on the other hand...  She spits up like it's her job.  In fact, she should ask for a raise.  In fairness, she's getting better at regulating her intake appropriately as she gets older.  The end of the week was much less wet than the beginning.

I mentioned that Olivia learned the word "no."  This week she perfected it.  She used to be so agreeable, saying "okay" for everything.  Now there are days when I don't hear more than two "okay"s the whole day.  :(  Her "no" is super cute, but it gets old after about 12 times and then is just obnoxious for the next 97...

This post is post number 100!  Some of them don't have much in them because they're posts I added after I technically started the blog.  Nevertheless, yay for post 100!  To celebrate, I'm giving 10 points to the reader who made the 100th comment (which was way back in September): Congratulations, Jillian!

These past two weeks, Olivia has been showing interest in dressing herself.  By which I mean she demands that I let her choose her own clothes.  I can sometimes convince her to pick from the choices that I select, but sometimes not.  The result is rather interesting.  I particularly like the polka dot turtle neck with the tight teal argyle stretch pants.  Mom tells me that I used to wear horizontal stripes with vertical stripes and claim it was okay because they were both stripes.  Or I'd wear stripes with polka dots and point out that both had pink in them.  As far as I can tell, Olivia does not put that much thought into her choices.  I may be selling her short; perhaps she IS putting that much thought into it and simply cannot verbalize it.

On Tuesday, my grandparents came down to Springfield and on Wednesday they took the girls and me up to Michigan for Holy Week.  We spent the week visiting with family, which was wonderful.  Bryan joined us on Friday night.  Gretchen was baptized at the Easter Vigil service on Saturday night (pictures next week), Sunday was more family, and then we were on our way home.

Pictures:

April 21-28

Olivia says "oval."  I'm not sure she'd recognize an oval if it bit her, but she knows how to say it.  She's also begun to attempt other words that we say, although if we ask her if she can say a specific word, she just replies with, "okay."

Oh, and she says "no."  It's still pretty cute when she says it, although I'm sure we'll get sick of hearing it soon enough...

Singing in the car is required (won't that make our trips up to see my parents even better...).  It starts with a request for "wah wah wah" from the back seat, which means Wheels on the Bus.  Actually, "wah wah wah" is what the babies say in Wheels on the Bus, but she wants the whole song.  From there I usually get to choose whatever song I want, as long as I accept the veto when it comes.  It comes often, but I refuse to sing the Wheels on the Bus more than once an hour.  I hit on a pretty good alternate the other day: If You're Happy and You Know It.  With a little creativity, one can make up endless verses to that song and the toddler gets practice following directions.  It's brilliant.

Tuesday our basement drain started backing up.  I called my mother (of course), and she said to get a plumber out to our house to snake the drain as soon as possible.  When Bryan came home from work, we talked about it and decided to see if one could come out that night.  You never know when you might not be able to let someone in because you're busy having a baby.  Someone showed up at our house to fix the problem around 9 and he was gone by 11:30 (although apparently if he'd run into serious problems he could have been there up to seven hours...).

Good thing we got the plumbing taken care of when we did, because Tuesday night we made a trip to the hospital so that Gretchen could be born in the wee hours of Wednesday morning.  Watch for a back-dated bonus post about that exciting adventure.  :)

On Wednesday, Olivia came to see us in the hospital.  She liked petting Gretchen and even held her for a minute or so before hopping off the bed, saying, "bye bye baby," and proceeding to check out the room.  She thought the buttons that raised and lowered the bed were pretty cool.  We did get a couple of cute pictures, and then Olivia went to Grandma's house to stay until we got home.

Thursday we were allowed to leave the hospital, so we were home around dinnertime.  Grandma and Grandpa brought Olivia to us and we all hung out for a while before bed.  Olivia was at least accepting of the fact that the baby apparently lives at our house now.  She tried to share her chicken nuggets with Gretchen, and when we said prayers that night, Gretchen had to kiss every icon (a couple of Olivia's stuffed animals have also kissed every icon).

Friday was Gretchen's first doctor appointment.  She's doing well and they want to see her again next week to make sure she gains back the weight that she lost.  Olivia panicked a little when the doctor came in the room, but we assured her that this visit was not for her and she calmed down.  We spent the rest of Friday letting Olivia smother Gretchen with love while trying to make sure she didn't actually smother her.  Truth be told, Gretchen was in more danger of getting her head accidentally bashed in by Olivia's typically toddler complete lack of body/limb awareness.  Smothering was less of a problem.

Thursday night Gretchen was up about every hour and a half to eat, but on Friday night she slept much better.  After being fussy from 11 to 1, she slept from 1-5 and then ate and slept until 7:30.  !!!  Probably a fluke, but I'll take it.  Of course, Saturday morning, she required constant holding until about noon.  As I told Bryan, I'll hold her all day if it means I get to sleep at night.  :)

On Saturday, Olivia and I did dishes and made bread.  Bryan had to finish the bread while I fed Gretchen, so Olivia showed him what to do.  Once the broom came out to sweep up the flour that had fallen on the floor, Olivia confiscated it and proceeded to sweep the great room.  It looks like we brought Gretchen home and put Olivia to work.  :)

Olivia is adjusting well.  She loves to give kisses to Gretchen and to help me pat Gretchen's back to burp her.  She gets sad when Gretchen is sad (which is better than making Gretchen sad) and is irritated when we won't let her hold Gretchen (although that's diminishing already as she learns that there are some things she can't do).  She shares her things well, so Gretchen was gifted a book to read while I changed her diaper the other morning, and she's had several toys thrust at her when she's fussing.

Pictures:

Bonus Post: Introducing...

Gretchen Bernice Barhorst

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

3:29 am

8 pounds, 0.2 ounces

21 inches

Sunday, April 21, I reached my due date.  With still no baby in sight and beautiful weather outside, Bryan, Olivia, and I went walking.  It worked with Olivia.  :)  Still nothing, though.  Jillian informed me that I was to do no more walking until Tuesday, and then I was to walk six miles (the library and back, plus a little) so that the baby would follow in Olivia's footsteps and be born the following day.  Someone must have picked Wednesday as the due date.

Monday I had an appointment and the doctor was getting antsy.  After all, according to his charts, I was now at 41 weeks and they like to induce between 41 and 42.  I talked him into waiting until the next Monday to induce, and he agreed after discovering that I was already 4 cm dilated and 90% effaced.  That's good, for those of you that don't know.  :)  He seemed sure that this baby was pretty much going to fall out.  Nevertheless, I did have to schedule an ultrasound for Wednesday, a non-stress test for Friday, and an induction for Monday morning.

Tuesday came, and Olivia and I walked to the library for storytime.  Jillian was pleased, although I'm sure she wanted me to get another mile in, just to be safe.  Mom told me that Jillian would be less pleased if said walking didn't produce a baby within 36 hours.  Tuesday afternoon I discovered water in the basement.  Our drain was backing up, so we called a plumber.  That night I called my mother to inform her that we'd followed her advice and were having our drain issues cleared up as we spoke.  Both Jillian and Dad were excited by the phone call, and Mom kept saying, "It's just about a plumber."  I assured everyone that, similar to last time, Bryan would send a text when we were at the hospital and the expected phone call would come some hours later.  When the plumber left, I went to bed.  Bryan stayed up to play a computer game and crawled into bed around 1:30, waking me up enough to send me to the bathroom before I went back to sleep.

I didn't go back to sleep.  I blame Bryan for this, as he was saying prayers and specifically mentioned the desire that our coughs clear up (we've been afflicted with persistent coughs as of late), especially his wife's, as "she will be going into labor soon, we hope."  Not ten minutes later, at 1:40, I had a contraction.  As I'd had several days of mild contractions that were few and far between, I didn't think much of it.  At 1:45, there was another one.  Two in a row isn't really enough to call a babysitter, though, so I rolled over and waited.  1:50 and along came the next one.  I got up to walk around for a bit.  Bryan was asleep, and I figured I'd get through the first hour or so alone before waking him up.  I went to the kitchen, thinking I'd make a batch of bread or something.  That bread never did get made.

By about 2:05, I'd decided contractions were strong enough and consistent enough to call a babysitter for Olivia.  So much for waiting an hour.  I woke up Bryan and told him I was going to call his mother after the next contraction.  Of course, the next one took longer to come since I'd made my decision.  :-P  At 2:12, I called Murry and told her I'd been having contractions for about half an hour.  She said she'd take the dogs out, grab her stuff, and be on her way.  I assured her that we could wait the hour it takes to arrive from Sidney.  At 2:27, she texted to let us know she was on her way.

2:40 rolled around, and the contractions were strong enough that Bryan and I decided maybe he should call someone in Springfield to come stay with Olivia until his mom arrived.  I let him make that phone call and tossed a few remaining things in my bag.  I had a few more increasingly stronger contractions on the couch while waiting for a lady from church to dash across town.  She arrived just before 3, and then things started getting interesting.  A side note: I went to bed wearing purple striped fuzzy socks.  I apparently found it very important that I not wear said socks to the hospital.  Bryan found me a pair of plain black sweat socks to wear instead.

Pretty much as soon as Beka walked in the door, I had another contraction, only with this one, I felt like I needed to push.  I said as much, and Bryan said, "no you don't, no you don't!"  Beka told me to breathe through it, they got my shoes on, and we were out the door.

At 3:07, we got to the hospital.  In the middle of the night, you go to the emergency room entrance, so we walked in and told the nurses there that I was in labor (Bryan said he's not going to know what to do if we ever go to the hospital during the day).  Bryan mentioned my urge to push, and they offered me a wheelchair, but I told them I was happier walking.  They summoned another nurse and she allowed me to walk to the birthing center, though not without much trepidation.  She was very concerned that I might have the baby on the floor in the hallway.  She delivered us to the labor and delivery desk with a sigh of relief.

The nurses at the L&D desk were much less concerned.  They had me fill out a sheet listing vital information.  Bryan says he tried to fill it out for me and I waved him off.  I have no recollection of this, although in hindsight, it was a wise move on my part because he didn't know many of the answers anyway.  We moved down the hall to triage so the nurse could check my progress.  She gave me a hospital gown and left the room to get something.  I remember having a contraction and complaining to Bryan, "Why won't anyone listen to me, I have to push!"

The nurse came back, checked me, and said, "Yep, you're complete."  She stuck her head out the door, grabbed another nurse, and went to find the doctor and an empty delivery room.  They covered me with a sheet and wheeled me down the hallway to the last empty room.  Apparently it was a big night for babies.  The doctor joined us, jogging next to the bed and pulling on gloves.  I felt like I was in a scene from a movie.

They weren't sure they'd be able to get me onto the delivery bed in time, but they managed between contractions.  No time for an IV, though, let alone an epidural.  Just time for a couple of pushes and then Gretchen was born.  3:29 am.  Talk about cutting it close.  They plopped her on my chest, let Bryan determine the gender and cut the cord, and proceeded to do all sorts of after-the-birth stuff.

After Gretchen was cleaned and weighed (8 pounds, 0.2 ounces), I was issued my patient bracelet.  The nurse noted as she put it on that Gretchen was an official patient of the hospital about 15 minutes before I was.  :)  I apologized for making their last 45 minutes so frantic, they joked that next baby we should just live in the parking lot for a few days, and then they left to let us get some sleep.  We called parents and Bryan sent out a mass text letting people know that Gretchen was born.  So much for my earlier assurances that a text would come first.  :)

A few hours later as she wheeled us to the recovery room, the nurse said she needed to fill out some paperwork.  Even if it was too late for some of the questions.  Was I strep B positive?  Didn't matter, the baby was born.  Did I want an epidural?  Irrelevant, for the same reason.  I spent the next couple of days with various people coming into the room to tell me that for some reason they didn't have this or that form.  When I mentioned that it was probably because we didn't have time to fill any out, they'd double check my name on the sheet and say, "oh, you're THAT patient."  Bryan asked one nurse what the fastest labor she'd experienced was, and she replied, "you mean besides this one?"  I'm a legend.

Excitement aside, Gretchen and I (and Bryan and Olivia) are doing well.  We checked her crib card when she was brought back, and she's 21 inches long.  She scored well on all the tests they did and she's just as beautiful and perfect as Olivia was, albeit with slightly less hair.  :)