I got me some sugar and spice for Mother's Day

Well, she's finally here! This past Saturday was full of the usual events (soccer game, trip to the store, pizza for dinner...) although I was fairly determined that I wanted our weekend events to include "have a baby." After the kids went to bed on Saturday night I decided to start walking and did several trips around the block to encourage some baby action. By about 10:00 that night I was having fairly regular contractions and by midnight they were about 4 min. apart and getting quite intense so we decided after much debate to head to the hospital...

You would think by my 4th kid it would be easy for me to recognize when I'm really in labor. Hewitt came so quickly (born 30 minutes after we pulled into the hospital parking lot) that I've always been afraid of not making it in time. I was a little discouraged to say the least when we arrived at the hospital to learn that I was only at a 3 and 1/2 and the contractions had sort of died down! I had already summoned my support team of the Nurse Midwife and my doula (labor coach) who brought with her a cute girl who is in training to become a doula (two doulas for the price of one--fabulous). I was afraid that they were going to send me home, but as soon as I got out of bed and moving around the room, things picked up and the real *fun* began. Maybe my memory is bad or maybe my body is just getting older (both of these are true), but things seemed much more difficult this time around. I won't go into all the labor details, but the entire process seemed to take a lot longer than the actual 4 hours it took to get the baby here! They broke my water when I was about 8cm and we called my mom at that point who was able to make it to the hospital in time for the delivery. I should mention that with my team of women (4 total including the hospital nurse) supporting and coaching me along, this enabled Rob to spend about 70% of the labor SOUND ASLEEP on the couch. I couldn't believe what all he was able to sleep through. When they were about to break my water I had to repeat about five times, "Rob, it's time to wake up. Call my mom. Rob, get your cell phone out. Rob, let's go..." Finally I said, "Rob, the baby is here. It's a boy!" Still nothing. After the baby came I laughed when Rob said, "Wow. That seemed to go a lot better than the others." Yah, because you were asleep for most of it! I should note that my husband thinks that hiring a doula and paying the $400 (as it was in this case for her services) is well worth the money...and I agree. My friend Angie told me about this comic that was in the paper on Sunday morning and I find it quite fitting and funny:

Anyway, to get to the real point of this entry, the baby arrived on Sunday, May 10th at 4:23AM, weighing in at 7 pounds 3 ounces and was 19 inches long. She surprised us with strawberry blonde hair (emphasis on the strawberry) and in our opinion looks like a cross between Hewitt (coloring) and Tosh (features). We named her Liv Maryana which was a big surprise to my parents (my mom's name is Maryana) and we think she is pretty darn perfect. She has been such a great eater and sleeper and is so snuggly and sweet. All in all, the perfect Mother's Day gift.

Our boys have had coughs and so we've had to keep them away from Liv, although we did allow them to come to look at her for about 3 minutes. They were all absolutely ecstatic. Hewitt, asked to see her little feet and when I showed him he said, "Oh, they are so fresh!" I thought that was hilarious. Anyway, here are some more photos (the one of the boys is blurry, but you get the idea).