She's here :)

I write this with a little girl snuggling on my shoulder - best feeling in the world!

Here's the birth story:

Just like her mommy (in terms of time management...), Rose Ellen decided she would need to be forced out instead of coming on her own.  All week and by the end of Thursday afternoon, I had been feeling pretty consistent contractions - some pretty strong - but they would always subside.  I kept thinking to myself, "I better go to bed early tonight so that I can get some rest before the baby comes tonight,"... then I'd wake up the next morning, nothing.  I didn't go to work after Monday, because the contractions were pretty distracting.  So Thursday rolled around, and I had already been scheduled the week before by my doctor to be induced that night.  I definitely didn't think I'd be showing up "scheduled" to have a baby - I had really wanted to go natural, but I knew this baby needed to come out, and at the rate she was going, God only knows when she would've come out (Wednesday night I put Preston down for bed, and cried the whole time, since I knew that would be the last time I put him down as my only baby.  He was really sweet and hugged me the whole time..). 

Skip's mom came to the house to watch Preston, so we said goodbye and headed to the hospital.  By 7pm they had started the cytotec to "ripen" things... I seriously was feeling like some sort of produce whenever they said that.  The nurses said a lot of people don't feel anything, and just sleep until they start pitocin.  Oh guess what, I was in the percentage where the cytotec started super strong contractions.  At first they were tolerable, and I was working through them, but they got to the point where I was sure I had to be significantly dilated because they were so painful (They felt like the contractions I had with Preston when I was ~7-8 cm).  So they checked me: 1.5.  Awesome.  Another dose of cytotec coming up.

At that point, I was finding it hard to breathe through things, so the nurse gave me a couple of doses of fentanyl over the course of a couple hours.  That was able to take the edge off the contractions, and allow me to relax better between them, but it was wearing off.  The nurse thought again that I for sure must be dilated... only 2cm this time.  I was starting to feel pretty deflated by that point, because I really didn't want to get an epidural, and for sure not that early (I had been really hesitant about even getting the IV meds, but the pain overrode that...).   I just couldn't work through the contractions, though, and they were only 2 mins apart, so I was getting no rest.  I gave in.  Epidural please.

Turns out the epidural allowed me to breathe and relax a bit - thank god.  That was at about 3:30 am.  They started pitocin at ~4:15, since my own contractions weren't doing anything productive.  Well... turns out that was all Rose needed to get moving.  At 5:25, I all of a sudden felt a TON of pressure and couldn't find the baby on the monitors... I was just about to call the nurse when she came in on her own.  She checked me and I was already 9.5, and the baby's head was right there!  Went from 3 to 9.5 in an hour!  I frantically got Skip to call my mom, since she and Sarah were waiting for the call to come over from the hotel.  It took them about 20 mins to get there - not bad (they said they made all but one light on Bluemound :))!

The doctor (who was very surprised I went so fast) broke my water, and then 3 pushes later, out she came!  What an uneventful, easy delivery after the pain of the labor! She came out with her eyes wide open, pink and perfect.  The doctors and nurses couldn't have been happier about how easy the delivery went - and I knew I was very blessed and lucky that there were no complications.  Rose also took to nursing right away, which was such a difference from Preston who really took a little while to catch on.

We stayed at the hospital until Sunday morning, which allowed (forced) me to rest and stay off my feet, which was fine.  Not to mention the help at night was good for the first two nights.  Skip was back and forth with and without Preston, and we were grateful for the help from Nana that first night, but then also Grandma (i.e. Nom-na) and Papa Eckel.

Since then, we have been settling in well at home.  Rose is on a fairly strict 3-hour nursing schedule, then sleeps up to 5 hours at night already.  I'm not going to comment on anything with that, lest I jinx myself with how well she's been doing!

Her brother, well, it's been an adjustment for him.  Preston is so sweet with Rose, and really wants to help and hug and kiss her.  He's not a big fan of Mommy or Daddy, though, which has been tough.  He's been acting out a lot more, but we are trying as hard as we can to find a balance between consistent correction, but also giving him some slack considering the circumstances.  We know it's just a phase... and we're making sure he gets time with each of us away from Rose, and we're making sure he knows he's still our baby, too.

For now, that's the update, more to come later!