Our new little girl...

I haven't been around much in this space recently, but there is a a very good reason! Please let me introduce our new little girl, Zerah Blythe. She was born on September 19th at 2:30 a.m. I have been spending all my time, it seems, just admiring this little one.

I worked up until the day she was born. I think I willed her to wait to come until I had finished up everything at work! My last scheduled day was Friday and I left work right before lunch because I was having contractions that were twenty minutes apart-they were 3 minutes apart by noon! She was due on Sunday, the 20th.

We went into the hospital at 1:30 that afternoon, but were sent home because the contractions were not intense enough, and I wasn't dilated at all. That was extremely frustrating. I was determined not to be sent home from the hospital again so I waited until I couldn't stand it anymore-so we left for the hospital at midnight. I still wasn't sure if we should leave or wait a little longer and told my husband and mom that I was sorry if we were sent home again.

When we arrived, the hospital was super busy with four people that came in at the same time as me with one girl's water breaking upon arrival. When they finally checked sometime after 1 am, I was dilated to 7 cm, and Zerah was born an hour an a half later. I had not fully decided if I wanted drugs or not, so when they asked me if I wanted an epidural at around 1:30 I decided I had come this far without it and could persevere without one. I was very freaked out about a shot in my spine and some of the side effects; I am glad I did not have one because it would have kicked in almost too late and lasted longer than I needed it. Since I did not have one, I was alert and Zerah was fully alert when she was born. It really happened just like I wanted it to; I was very blessed to have a really good experience. Most of the delivery doctors were out of town on a retreat that night so a midwife who works for the hospital was the one who delivered Zerah; I think this worked out for the best, too.

My mom lives out of town and was originally scheduled to arrive Saturday night. When I talked to my parents Thursday night, my dad decided Zerah was going to come early so he convinced her to fly out a day early. I don't know how he knew because I sure didn't! She arrived at our house at ten, just in time to go to the hospital with us at midnight and be there for her grand-daughter's birth.

She is named after my great-grandmother and my husband's grandmother. We wanted something unique that was also from our family.


We are all doing well and starting to catch up on everything. I actually have had a little bit of time to sew this past week.:)