I woke up just after midnight on Thursday, March 6th feeling a little odd.  At 9+ months pregnant, getting in and out of bed can be quite a chore but I managed to roll out of bed and started wobbling toward the bathroom when my water broke.  I went back to the bedroom, turned on the light and instantly Phil woke up.  You see, every Thursday we have a paper route job that starts at about 4:30 in the morning when Phil leaves to go pick up the papers from the warehouse.  As soon as I turned the light on Phil jumped up and asked if he was late getting up to get the papers.  I promptly told him that my water broke and Mr. Efficient had his clothes and coat on and was ready to whisk me off to the hospital.  Now, anyone who knows me knows that I really, REALLY dislike hospitals and since I was not having any consistent contractions I was really in no hurry to rush to the hospital for who knows how long until baby arrived.  I was able to put him off for almost an hour but he got me to the hospital about 1am.

We tried calling and texting my doctor but our new cell phone provider was not playing along that night and he didn’t know I went into labor until a couple hours after baby was born.  Fortunately, my doctor’s back up was at the hospital in no time and was quite good at helping me stay focused through the pain.

Anyway, Phil would say “and 4 pushes later” our 5th child was born.  Now, that kind of implies that not much happened before those 4 pushes and I honestly think it was more like 6 pushes but who’s counting!  At 5 hours this was the quickest labor.. thankfully!

Without any further rambling please meet Peanut, Buttercup or something else… haven’t settled on a nickname for her yet.  She was born at 5:09 am Thursday, March 6th weighing 8 pounds and was 20 1/4 inches long.  And yes I said HER!  We did not know ahead of time what God was going to bless us with and it was fun to hear ‘it’s a girl’ after all the hard work.

With big sister Pooh Bear!

With big sister Belle!

She’s beautiful and healthy and perfect for our family!

The nurses were shocked when by 7am that same morning I asked when I could go home.  Remember… I don’t like hospitals and unless there is a medical reason to keep me or baby I see absolutely no reason to stay.  Right about that time my OB walked in, looked me over and gave me the thumbs up to go home and all we needed was for the hospital pediatrician to give the OK for baby.   Originally, the hospital wanted me to take a parenting class before allowing me to be discharged but my nurse came in and told me I didn’t need to go to the class.  Around 1pm the pediatrician said baby was ok for us to take home (of course, that was after I got a lecture about how we should stay and be monitored for at least 24 hours, yada yada yada) and we were out the door by 2pm.  YAY!  Less then a 12 hour hospital stay!

Fast forward 2 weeks and baby gained 22 ounces (she lost 8 ounces the first day or two) and is a very calm and beautiful baby.  All the kids absolutely adore her and are big helps around the house.

We thank God for this amazing blessing!