Meet Leah!

Here's the estrogen Keith promised....

Wow. Where do I begin? What an amazing couple of days we've had. We are so completely in love with our little lady! She is SUCH a good baby and is just so much fun to look at!

Meet Leah Elizabeth Card! Isn't she adorable?!?!


I'm posting the birth story so if you aren't interested, scroll down a bit. It's not too gory....

Labor started on Wednesday morning very early. In fact, the onset of labor is exactly the same as it was with Bennett. For both it was a Wednesday morning and contractions started at 2:30 am (about 3:00 am for Bennett). They were about 5 minutes apart from the beginning. Although they really didn't hurt much, there is no such thing as sleep once you realize you are in early labor. I tried to occupy myself until morning came without waking anyone up. Finally, I went back to bed and waited for Keith's alarm clock to go off at 5:00. I knew that once he knew, there would be no sleep for him either. I let him hit the snooze button a couple of times and when he started to get up for work, I told him he was getting the day off! Then the both of us tried to kill another hour or two before we started making noise. We watched mountain biking and random adventure videos on You Tube and timed the contractions. Finally, at around 7, we started taking showers and getting things together. The contractions were still not bad and I was fully expecting to be in labor for many, many hours (Bennett was 30). However, I was pretty sure my water had broken just as the contractions started to I definitely had to get to the hospital because of an antibiotic I was supposed to get before delivery.

We got to the hospital at 9:30 and they determined that my water had broken so I was definitely getting admitted. I was 4 cm dialated at that point. I got into my delivery room at 10:30 and met my "team". Once I got onto the monitors, the contractions slowed to 7 or 8 minutes apart so they started talking pitocin. I really didn't want pitocin since I was hoping to go as natural as possible. I had an epidural with Bennett and ended up pushing for FOUR hours. I attribute my horrible recovery to the epidural because of the long pushing phase. I had decided that I would rather hurt for a couple of hours with less/no pain meds than hurt for 6 weeks because of having no control of my body during labor. So, when they started talking pitocin, I was afraid I would end up caving. But they convinced me that pitocin was the way to go since I had a history of long labor. I definitely didn't want to be having a baby 30 hours later so I went ahead with it. Literally within a minute, the contractions started coming at 2 minutes apart. Ouch. There was just no break in between. So I broke down and got the epidural. I think the anesthesiologist was standing outside my door waiting for me to give in because he was there pretty quick.

This is just before the epidural...does it look like there is a nearly ten pound baby in there???


There ended up being a problem with the epidural because it went into the wrong space. It ended up being a spinal instead. I don't really understand the difference but basically it meant that the meds were not continuous and controlled with a pump. It was just a one time dose that they were going to adjust later. Whatever, it felt divine. I still had total feeling in my legs but I couldn't feel the contractions. I got about an hour and a half of nice rest. Then, all of a sudden, I started feeling it again on my right side. So I rolled over hoping it would redistribute the meds. Instead, that caused it to wear of completely! I went from 0 to ten on the pain scale in seconds. I could feel EVERYTHING and it hurt. They checked me for the first time since I got to the hospital and I was an 8 and fully engaged. Then my legs started shaking like crazy--I was in transition. They went running for the anesthesiologist but came back saying everyone was in the OR so I just had to wait a bit. Except that I started feeling a ton of pressure. Another quick check indicated I had only a lip of cervix left. I felt like I had to push NOW. Everyone went running. There was no doctor and I was pushing. The nurse prepping the table said she could see head. Seconds later, the midwife ran in and threw on a gown while everyone else was breaking down the table and getting in place. I was totally pushing by this point and within 10 minutes, she was out! She had a great scream right away and I held her for a while before they took her away to wipe her off and weigh her. She was gorgeous! What a relief to have her here!

They said she was a big baby when she was born and I was shocked to find out how big when they put her on the scale!!!


Isn't she cute? She came so fast that her head never got smashed. Everyone kept commenting that she looked like a c-section baby because her head was so nice and round.


She was 21 & 3/4 inches long. I love baby frog legs....


Big brother meeting her for the first time. She was about 4 hours old. He LOVES his baby sister!


Bennett and daddy looking at her little piggies.


My babies--


Little Leah-


A smile?


Proud Daddy-


Welcome home!


My girl...


Bennett loves to give kisses.




So we are adjusting to being a family of four. So far so good! She is a great sleeper and she is eating well too (would you expect anything less from 9+ pounder?). Nights have been pretty good and I actually have to keep waking her up to eat. She easily goes 4 hours at a stretch at night right now. Hopefully it stays that way for a while! I'm feeling pretty good too, considering. Not fantastic, but certainly not as bad as I did after having Bennett. I could barely walk after he was born so I consider myself lucky that I can stand up long enough to take a shower without crying. So as traumatic as it was to have a natural childbirth with very little warning, I got exactly what I wanted. I was able to have a lot more control of the process and it did a lot less damage as a result. Plus, I got a healthy baby girl!

We feel so blessed to have her here! It's especially sweet to be able to cuddle a newborn at Christmas. What a sweet reminder of the birth of our Savior and the reason we celebrate during this time of year.