Leah Arrived...7 weeks ago!

Ok, so I'm a bit behind...but the obvious reason is- Leah arrived! She was born 7 weeks ago, on Sunday, November 13th at 6:00 pm.

In a nutshell, I began having contractions during the day on Saturday the 12th. I went about my day like normal but by about 4:30pm, I commented to Adrian how regular the contractions were and wondered if I should start timing them. So we did- and they were about 10 minutes apart! They stayed that way for a while and so I took a bath and walked around the house, packing the rest of my hospital bag and trying to distract myself. The contractions fizzled out, then came back again and I just felt exhausted, so I went to bed.

All through the night however, I had contractions. They were getting more intense and by morning, I knew I was in labor. I went to the bathroom and had some bleeding, which further solidified that statement- this was it!

After my super fast labor with Colin, Adrian and I had decided to labor at the hospital this time, so I called the midwife and we went in at about 10am. I was dilated to a 3, then progressed to a 4 after walking around the hospital a bit. We made the decision to break my water, which was so painful! I guess the bag of waters was super strong this time around, so it took a lot more effort than it should have.

I labored on the birthing ball, walking around the room, even laying down occasionally. It was really hard labor but by 4pm, when I hadn't made much progress, I opted to lay in the tub for a while. I had about 10 minutes of rest in there, then the contractions came fast and furious. That really sped things up! It took a lot of effort to get through each one. About an hour later, I was dilated to a 6, then not long after that, an 8. Soon I felt the urge to push, so we got out of the tub and 20 minutes later, Leah was born! She was 6 lbs 11 oz and 21.5 inches long. My biggest baby by 1/2 a pound!

Adrian was home for the first 2 weeks, which helped tremendously. So far, the transition to 4 kids hasn't been that bad. The kids adore her and are very helpful. The hardest part is dealing with the lack of sleep! It's finally getting better though, thank heavens.

Leah is such a cute baby! She was very quiet for about a week, then suddenly let us know just how great her lungs work. She's a fantastic nurser though so I've had a very easy time with that. More to come on how she's doing!