Hello Miss Magnolia

She is here!  Baby #4 made her grand entrance into this world at

4:44 pm on 

October 22, 2016

She weighed 7 lbs 15 oz and was 19.5 inches long.  She was the same size as Jensen at birth and only beat Declin by an oz (he was 7 lbs 14 oz at birth).

Her birth story is a huge blessing in my life.  Reflecting back on it each piece of it worked together perfectly to create a wonderful birth experience for me and Magnolia.  Ofcouse in the actual moment it all feels confusing, long, and stressful since you don't actually know when or how it will all turn out.

Unlike my other birth experiences Magnolia's labor process started several days before her actual birth day.  With my other 3 kids I have never dilated or had any real labor signs before the actual labor process started.  I assumed this time would be the same so I almost did not even have my midwife check me at my 39 week appointment.  In the end curiosity got the best of me and I ended up having her check.  I was 1.5 cm dilated and 50% effaced.  Not much, but progress.  It at least made me feel better about all the pain that I had been feeling.

Fast forward to my due date, October 20th.  I was checked again and this time I was dilated to 3 cm.  Sweet!  But I still knew that it could be a while till baby came out.  Also at that appointment I had my midwife strip my membranes for the first time ever.  She was confident that I would be in labor soon.  Me... not so much.  I was mentally at the "this baby is never coming out" stage.  Things were pretty painful the rest of that day, but still no "real" labor contractions, just a lot of downward pressure and braxton hicks contractions.  Friday night (the day after my "due" date) my parents came to our house to spend the weekend with us.  Ofcourse we were all hoping that I would have the baby while they were here since that would be very convenient to have them there to be with our kids.

Saturday morning, October 22nd around 4 am I had my first "real" contraction.  The ones that start in your back and wrap around your stomach.  The contractions stayed 15-20 mins apart until around 9 am when they moved up to around 10 mins apart.  My mom and I decided to go for a walk to see if we could keep things moving.  The walk was hard for me, but still the contractions did not move much closer together.  I was pretty confused by this point and not really convinced that I was in labor.  After the walk we sent my dad, McKay and the kids to the store.  I had planned to finish packing my hospital bag while they were gone, but ended up just sitting on a chair since standing and walking felt too painful.  At this point I was very grateful that my parents were there to help take care of the kids since I was pretty much not able to really focus on them at that point.  While the boys and kids were gone I realized that when I was standing my contractions were about 2-5 minutes apart, but when I sat down they were 10-15 mins apart.  I decided that we should just go to the hospital and get things checked out, even with the possibility that they might send us home since my contractions were not consistent.  So when McKay got home I told him we were going to the hospital!

We packed our bags and headed out.  We got to the hospital around 1 pm.  I had to have a wheelchair ride upstairs since walking was a challenge at this point.  When they checked me I was 6 almost 7 cm.  No going home wohoo!!  All through my pregnancy my goal was to not get my epidural until I was a 6 or a 7.  Not sure why I had decided that... I think I just wanted to keep control of my body and the situation for a bit longer in case I needed to move, walk, or do anything to help keep baby in a good position for birth.  So when I heard that I was a 6 I was so ready for the epidural!  The IV process was pretty dramatic and took 3 tries to get one to work.  Ouch!  In the end the NICU nurse had to come in and do it since she was used to hard veins.  After the IV was the epidural.  Even with all of my hypnobirthing knowledge I did not stay very calm through the process of giving me the actual epidural.  I was very nervous and tense which surprised me since I had not felt so nervous the last time that I got one.  But in the end the epidural went great and it was amazing to not feel pain after that!  Seriously! After having Declin naturally I did not take the epidural for granted this time around.  I just layed there for the rest of her labor amazed.  I was having contractions and about to meet my sweet baby girl and I got to ENJOY it.  Funny I know, but I was happy.  Magnolia did so great through the whole process and never once did her heart rate make us get worried or anything.  She was a champ!

Once the epidual was in we just hung out and waited for things to finish progressing.  McKay took a nap and I just relaxed and enjoyed those quiet moments before we met her.  I thought about sleeping, but was too excited to actually fall asleep.  My midwife was helping with a C-section so they were not really in a hurry to get her out which I was grateful for because I wanted to just let her move down on her own and keep the pushing part to a minimum.  In the end that plan worked great.  My midwife showed up an hour later.  We prepped everything, I gave two pushes and she slipped out into this word.  I could feel her coming out and a bit of pressure, but not any pain.  It was so wonderful to have her here.

She snuggled on my chest for a few hours after.  She kept showing signs of wanting to nurse so I nursed her for close to 2 hours which is the longest any of my babies have nursed for in the beginning.  Eventually we weighed and measured her, and McKay got a chance to snuggle her.  We texted family that she was here and we had lots of discussion on what we should name her.  We even wrote them on the board and started having all the nurses and doctors vote for their favorite name.  We seriously could not decide!  The 3 names that we were chosing from were Roselyn (nickname: Rosie), Bronwyn (Winnie), and Magnolia (Nola).  All through the pregnancy we were pretty sure that we would name her Magnolia, but then she came out and we weren't so sure anymore.  She has dark hair and to me Bronwyn was a dark haired baby so I started leaning towards Bronwyn.  The votes were pretty even for Bronwyn and Magnolia.  I was starting to get a little frustrated that we couldn't figure it out.  But then I showered and McKay gave baby girl a bath in the nursery.  When she came back and we were enjoying her cuteness it just kind of clicked.  She was our Magnolia.  So we decided about 20 mins later that she was officially Magnolia and we have grown to love her and her name more each day.

Her first bath

Once we got settled into our postpartum room it was bedtime and so we got ready and went to bed.  McKay slept, Magnolia semi- slept and I did not sleep much.  I just layed there very tired, yet not able to really turn my brain off.  Honestly between all of the interruptions and taking care of Magnolia I probably only slept 2 hours the whole first night.  But somehow adrenal keeps you going and I wasn't too tired the next day.  It was Sunday the kids and my parents came to visit us.  I was really excited for Adalyn, Jensen and Declin to meet Magnolia.  I wish I would have been more on my game and taken a video of it, but it all just sort of happened and I had the thought too late.  But the kids were cute meeting her.  They were really excited and started climbing up by her and asking lots of questions.  Declin was really animated and fascinated by her.  Jensen took a look at her and then started exploring the hospital room.  Adalyn wanted to hold her and love her right away.  She thinks she is the worlds best baby doll.  We took pictures with the kids, visited for awhile, and then sent them off to get ready for church.  This mommy was happy to see them, but it gets crazy with us all in one hospital room together.

First photo as a family of 6!

Our little pumpkin baby

Meeting Grandma and Grandpa

Taking over mom's bed 

 During my pregnancy I had been looking forward to the hospital stay as a mini vacation from the craziness of life.  They feed you, you get to snuggle a new baby, and stay in bed all day.  And while the hospital stay was a break from normal life I was reminded why you are there.  haha!  Recovering from having a baby is hard work, especially those first couple days.  So it ended up not being as relaxing as I had hoped, but it was nice to be able to recover some before coming home.  The worst part about those first few days was the cramping.  SO much cramping!  I dreaded nursing since that made them worse.  It was rough trying to manage the pain and figure out what would help with them.  My midwife suggested lots of baths.  So we took a few baths a day to help get through the worst of them.  Luckily by the time I went home the cramping was on the down hill and they have not been too bad at home.  They say the cramping gets worse the more kids you have and apparently that was true for me because it was BAD.  But nursing has been easier and I did not tear during delivery so recovery in other areas has gone better.  You win some and lose some right?

The 2nd night in the hospital I was exhausted and SO ready for some real sleep.  But Magnolia had other plans for us.  She struggled that second night a lot and never really went into a deep sleep.  She was fussy, gassy, and acted like she wanted to eat a lot.  She hated laying the little hospital bed/cart thing so she just wanted to be held all night.  McKay and I tried the best to switch off being up with her, but by the end of the night I was pretty frustrated and getting nervous about how things would go as we brought her home that day.  But after talking to the nurses they assured us that it is common for new babies to have a rough second night as they get rid of the extra fluid they may have swallowed and are getting hungry since moms milk has not come in yet.  After hearing that I felt a little more hopeful that things would go smoothly at home.  And they have!  She has been a wonderful baby and sleeps pretty well for a newborn.      

 Going home.  

We are so grateful for the safe arrival of sweet Magnolia.  Bringing a new baby into the family is a lot of work and always brings with it a full range of emotions.  But in the end it is always worth it and a true miracle.