This past week was an eventful one for our family. On Saturday, Maren was the flower girl for
Jackie and Jeremy's wedding. She was very excited to take on this task. She is still asking when we get to go to the wedding again. I don't think she realizes that it is a once in a lifetime event. :) She did a great job, especially considering she is only 2 1/2. We had some major dilemmas with her hair. I curled and curled it only to, only minutes later, fall flat. She has some of the natural curl like her mommy, they were, however, not wanting to come out. . . . bobby pins were to our rescue.It all worked out. It was a Beautiful wedding and more importantly, miss Nora waited long enough for me to get to go. Nick and Barb were nice enough to rearrange their life enough to watch Ian
and Maren all week. Monday was spent getting some last minute things done. I got my hair cut, went and got some
last minute baby things, and Eric and I finished the picnic table that we had been working on.
induce labor. The hospital was a busy place that day! On Tuesday morning, we went in to the hospital to have our latest edition. At the last OB
appointment they had thought that she was breech, so we were going in to turn her and to
getting admitted, we spent time in a little room, waiting for someone to come check to see if the baby was head down or now. After an hour and 3 nurses, they finally got an IV in my arm. . .next was the ultrasound. . . baby head down! Yay, no pain
there! and. . . so we thought. . . no C-section. After waiting from 7:30-12 for a
delivery room, we finally landed one! At 1:10 they tried breaking my water, with no success, and then started pitocin. After an hour of
contractions and no change, they tried at 2:10 to once again break my water. . . this time they got it. At this point, honestly, I thought I would start dilating and, quickly, be ready to deliver a baby. . . .This was NOT the case. 4 hours later, I requested internal monitors to be put on, so that I could get out of the bed. During this check the nurse got a little
surprise! She called in the doctor and she too got the same response. Where a little head should be, was a little hand! Nora actually grabbed on to the doctors finger ! At this point we could do two things, one being to wait to see if the baby would pull her hand back and we could continue on her
merry way! An hour later, we had a hand in the same place, maybe
even a little more lodged in there. At this point we decided on a C-section. Definitely NOT what I was expecting. At 6:43, Nora Jean was born! She weighed in at a whopping 7 lbs 1 oz and 19 3/4 inches long. She was 2 oz. less than her big sister. Nora and I came through everything fine.
Mom, Jerry, Erika and Sam were at the hospital when I went in for the surgery, so they were the first visitors. . . they got to see all of the cleaning and measuring of the baby. I was very surprised to see the dark hair. . .and was also surprised on her size. . . since we were expecting a
bigger baby. . .
The kids visited on Wednesday. It was really cute
how they came in, with flowers for me, and wanted to see Nora. Ian went straight up to me and wanted to hold her, after mentioning that he needed to be on the couch they both ran to the couch. Hands were out and they both wanted to hold their new little sister. Knowing the temperament of the kids, I let Ian hold her first. Maren watched happily as her brother inspected Nora's hands feet and head. After she passed inspection, Maren got to hold her. She was a lot more calm and wanted to give her sister kisses. It was really sweet. After maybe 5 minutes of holding her, she was done. Maren spent the next 5 minutes investigating the room. Nick and Barb seemed to enjoy meeting the newest edition to the Hoffmann clan. I was glad to see the kids leave without the meltdown that we had when Maren was born. . .They were more
understanding of things I guess.
After getting home on Friday, we called Alicen to see if she could come down for a couple of days. Luckily she could and the transition from Hospital to home has been a little easier on me. I am still sore, of course, and Nora is still getting her schedule figured out. I am hoping to get things straightened out. . . keeping her up more in the day so I can sleep at night. Maren is always wanting to hold Nora, Ian seems pretty indifferent. Nora has taken to breastfeeding like a champ, something the other 2 refused to do. We are all having a learning week.
We have an appointment tomorrow in Creston with Dr Hoyt. After that we need to take Alicen home :( I appreciated the extra set of hands and it could be interesting to have all of my help gone on the same day. Wish me luck with the rest of the week.
