a bath, finally!

fresh and clean...look how great she can hold her head up! i finally got around to bathing this poor baby...gotta love that hair!

kids and baby

Here are some pics of the kids holding their new baby sister. She is starting to look normal now as the bruising is going away and her cute baby features are starting to finally show forth! These however were taken after she was born. I'll try to throw some new ones in later today after I download them.

BABY BLESSINGS!

Well, Veronica Marie Harper is finally among us! She was born July 2, 2009 at 3:20 in the morning, weighing in at 7lbs 5 oz (the scale kept swinging between 7.4-7.7, so if you've heard differing reports it was because I hadn't looked at the Birth Certificate yet to see what everyone agreed on....I was a little tired). Her face is bruised, and we don't know why, but today it seems to be much better.
I have to back up a bit and fill you in on some background. My first three babies had all been between 7-8 lbs and early. My last three had been 9+ lbs and late. My labors and recovery really wore at my body and I was feeling very old and well, gravity is strong, LOL! When we found out about Veronica, we were shocked as my body was showing signs of no more kids. We felt blessed and honored to have been given another child after loosing one a few years ago in a bad miscarriage that took weeks to recover from.
Due to size fears, I became ever mindful of how much sugar I was putting into my body. Not saying that I avoided it completely, but I definitely curtailed it. I craved carbs and fruit, so I was still getting glucose and that made me look further as to what I could do to avoid the "huge" gestational diabetic baby. I started with taking Chromium Picolinate with each meal (600 mcg total---never do more than 800mcg/day). A naturopathic friend of mine suggested the Chromium Niacinamate as it was more stable than the Picolinate. A few months back I switched to that. I also added Cinnamon early on, despite the precautions on cramping and miscarriage...I just lowered the dose I took at each meal...I spread out two 500 mg capsules through the day. I also continued going to the gym, although in my last trimester that would be reduced to just three days a week instead of almost daily like I was doing earlier.
My "official" due date was July 13, but when I visited my ob and had an ultrasound at 10 weeks, she changed the due date up a week and said she thinks I just ovulated earlier than what I thought....turned out she was right!
July 1 I'd decided that I was so uncomfortable that I had to be carrying another 9lber, so I decided to do a few things to see if I could get little one to come earlier rather than later. I went to my chiropractor that morning and came home. Ate lunch, then ate a bag of Reese's pb cups...gag! I then had 1 Tbs. castor oil in cranberry juice with one Mastergland, and waited....nothing. After weeks of being horribly constipated, I at least has some relief there, but no cramping or uncomfortable pains.
I went to my neighbor's house and hung out for a bit than came home for a quick nap, another Tbs. of castor oil and one Mastergland again. I took one capsule of Mastergland two hours later and then pretty much stopped...I'd had no contractions and figured I'd might as well just wait for her to come on her own. Normal resumed, I made dinner, ate and then went for a short walk with Lauren. By bed time I was having infrequent strong braxton hicks, but not "the real thing" and not anything different than when I'd been having for about a week.
11pm...woke up with strong contractions...three in five minutes....I panicked a little because my midwife was an hour away & Paul had just fallen asleep....he's so cranky if I wake him, lol! I popped onto facebook to ask friends to pray for me and had a lovely conversation with another Catholic homeschool large family mom.
I finally got ahold of the midwife an hour later and she was on her way. I woke up Paul when Lynda got here and contractions had settled into a regular 1 min. long every 3-4 minutes and I was ready for hydrotherapy! I was 4cm and uncomfortable. I told her I thought I was getting better at calling midwives on time...nothing like the 15 minutes I had with the first midwife I'd ever had 14 years ago before Megan was born.
I had to abandon the water when I found the tub was too uncomfortable. I seem to always labor in my hips and it just wasn't working for me. I ended up on the edge of the bed between the midwife's assistant and Paul until it came time to push and then I slid up on my side. Only pushed about two times...not nearly as traumatic as my last three that all somewhat got stuck and took some midwife manipulation to get them to come.
Katherine remained behind Paul the whole time, but Rebecca ducked out when it got to be too intense for her tender heart. Megan thought sleep was more important, but couldn't resist coming to see the baby once she cried. I can't decide who she looks like...other than Paul. I don't see a lot of resemblence to the other kids like I've done in the past. She has jet black hair and may end up with the darker skin tone like Megan and Lauren have. She has Paul's chin and my mom's long legs....other than that I guess we'll just have to wait to see. Right now she has long awake times and like's to nurse a lot...although we are working on the chewing!!! She practically screamed all night last night, but I think it was gas and hopefully will not repeat today.
Paul took all the kids swimming this evening at the Y and this morning we got the new carpets installed in the kid's bedroom...no I didn't lift any furniture, but I did have to run to the carpet store to pick up the pad...it wasn't very far and I feel fine. We'll probably miss the big OB celebration tomorrow, I'm just not in the mood to keep up with seven kids in 95+ degree heat!