If you don't want to hear about Mercy's arrival into the world, skip this part and just move on down to the pictures. I just want to record her birth before I forget!
Monday, August 13th was just like any other day at the end of pregnancy. I had a doctor's appointment in the morning, Charlotte and I ran some errands, and then my mom came over to help me do some cleaning since we were supposed to have some guests later in the week. We were glad to have my doctor back in town after she had been gone for almost 2 weeks working in Costa Rica. We didn't want her to miss the delivery! When we went to bed around 11pm I was having stronger contractions than normal, but they were really infrequent and I was able to fall asleep. I woke up a few times throughout the night with strong contractions, but I was always able to fall asleep again and figured that since I was sleeping for an hour or two in between awakenings that it must not be real labor, or at least not yet.
Around 4am both Matt and I were awake for good. It seemed like the contractions got themselves organized to every 15 minutes, then every 7 minutes and were getting stronger each time. By 5am I was sure I was in labor and today was the day we would meet our little baby! We called my mom to come watch Charlotte and called my doctor to have her meet us at the hospital. When I had Charlotte we labored at home a little too long and when I got to the hospital it was time to push; we wanted to avoid that slightly chaotic situation this time, so we went in just a bit earlier.
We left for the hospital just before 6am (we live about 5 minutes from the hospital, so it's not much of a drive). Unfortunately we accidentally went the wrong way by a few blocks since we're used to going to the employee parking ramp, not the door for labor and delivery! Luckily it was easy to correct and I only had one big contraction in the car. My doctor (we call her Dr. Margaret with Charlotte, but we just call her Margaret) met us at the hospital and she had a big cup of Caribou Coffee for Matt! She had already arranged for our room and asked for a good nurse, so we were set. Once we got settled in, it was only about 45 more minutes of laboring before it was time to push! And 45 minutes after that, we welcomed our second daughter into the world and into our family. Matt announced "It's a girl!" and we were both thrilled! It was an amazing moment to have her in my arms and to kiss her all over.
Just minutes old!
My doctor, Margaret, who is amazing!
Daddy and his new daughter!
So excited to finally meet her!
We all took a guess at her weight before putting her on the scale. Most guesses were around 8 pounds. Imagine our surprise when we saw this (8 lb 9 oz) on the screen! Charlotte was 8 lb 7 oz, so Mercy was 2 oz bigger! We had anticipated Mercy would be much smaller because I gained 10 pounds less this pregnancy!
Brand new baby!!!
Can you believe the rolls on this baby?! Holy smokes!
Then we called big sister Charlotte to come meet her new brother or sister. We didn't tell her which one it was until she got to the hospital.
Introducing your new little sister!
Love at first sight.
Lots of kisses!
With Grandpa Mark and Grandma Cindy (Kristi's parents).
With Dr. Margaret.
Grandpa Mark and his fourth granddaughter. Poor guy had five sisters and no brothers. Then he had four daughters and no sons (except for our poodle, who was a boy and was occasionally called "son"). Now he has four granddaughters and no grandsons...
Grandma Cindy and the little bundle of joy.
Charlotte got a big sister shirt from Grandma and Grandpa at the hospital gift shop. She was so proud!
Snuggling in Mama's hospital bed.
Not thrilled to be wearing socks and a bow on her head. Charlotte brought them to the hospital and insisted she wear them.
Her first bath late in the evening. She did not enjoy it!
The next morning before we went home Dr. Margaret stopped by to say hello (above and beyond the call of duty, since there were other doctors taking care of me at the hospital) and she brought a beautiful cake! It says "Happy Birthday Baby Florek." She had called us the night before to find out what we had named the baby, but we hadn't decided yet at that point. She told us we could call her when we had decided, which we thought was a little funny. We ended up not deciding until late that night, so we didn't call her back. The next morning we found out that she had wanted to know her name so she could have it written on the cake. But since we didn't call her, the cake had to say "Baby Florek." Oh well. But she brought us a CAKE!
And here we are, going home, all buckled in to the carseat. Goodbye hospital, hello world!
