She's here!!! Our beautiful baby girl-- Elizabeth (so she has her own special name, but we can also give her an "L" nickname like Lizzie or Libby or Liza, like her sisters), and Mid (for her great grandma Mildred who is someone we both love and respect), was born on Monday, January 25, 2016 at 11:47 a.m. And in honor of her due date which is today (2/4/16) I thought it was only fitting that we share her very own story:
A very pregnant mommy at 38 weeks exactly. It's so crazy to think that THIS little baby is who has been growing and moving inside of me this whole time! I took this picture right before picking my mom up at the airport Thursday evening (1/21), since she was flying in to help us with the kids during the delivery, as well as the week after. We spent the weekend grocery shopping, running errands, enjoying one last pedicure, and pigging out on Mexican food as a pregnant "Last Supper" (at least I did).
SUNDAY, JANUARY 24
8 p.m.: Checked into Labor and Delivery at Skyridge Hospital for induction, and dilated to 3 cm but only 50% effaced
10 p.m.: Finally get the IV inserted after three pokes, two blown veins, and two frustrated nurses (they finally had to call a Life Flight EMT to insert the IV because apparently I have deep veins, and it didn't help that my hands were swollen from pregnancy). Nurse places the Cervidil (no eating or moving from this point on) and we start the clock...
11 p.m.-6 a.m.: Enjoy a restless night of cramps, contractions, and lots of waiting... (and poor Jon tossing and turning on a pull-out bed)
MONDAY, JANUARY 25
6 a.m.: Dr. Lamb comes in and checks me, and I'm totally thinned out, dilated to 5 cm, so he breaks my water and starts the Pitocin
9 a.m.: After some pretty consistent, huge and very painful contractions, the anesthesiologist comes in and does the epidural
10 a.m.: Nurse checks and I'm dilated to 7 cm
11:30 a.m.: Dr. Lamb arrives and the nurse sets up the delivery room
11:47 a.m.: Three big pushes later and this little lady is officially here!!!
Elizabeth Mid Cardon
Nice and pink and bright eyed!
She was my smallest baby, weighing in at just 6 lbs. 15 oz. She is our petite little peanut. Leah was born a week earlier, and weighed almost a whole pound more!
I was terrified of the delivery. Just ask Jon. I was having bad dreams about it for weeks beforehand, mainly because Leah's delivery was so traumatizing. She ended up coming out head and shoulders at the same time-- kind of like an explosion, and I tore really, really badly. I couldn't sit or even stand up comfortably for weeks afterwards. Naturally I worried and worried all while I was pregnant with Elizabeth that the scar tissue wouldn't hold and the same thing would happen all over again-- maybe even worse. Thankfully my doctor here was aware, and also since she was smaller, she came right out without any problems and my subsequent recovery has been so much easier and quicker!
I absolutely love this picture! She is so mellow and peaceful and good tempered. Like, "Hey World. I'm here. What's next?"
She has dark brown hair and big blue eyes ((we think so far)). She's such a beauty! We are SO thankful she arrived as quickly and smoothly as she did. Labor and delivery are always scary, but we definitely had two prayers answered during this whole process. Leah had been sick with a terrible cold all the week before the induction, and of course I caught it right before Sunday. I was feeling so tired and crappy-- sore throat, congestion, achey, etc. but mostly feeling SO frustrated with the very bad timing of this cold! Jon gave me a blessing Sunday morning and blessed me that my cold would go away and that I'd be well throughout the delivery and after, and it was absolutely a tender mercy that my cold did indeed disappear, despite being up for over 48 hours. Additionally, throughout the morning, Elizabeth's heart rate would drop really low during my big contractions, which was starting to worry the nurses and doctor. They were willing to watch it as long as my labor progressed quickly (which it thankfully did), but as soon as she came out and the doctor caught her, she'd had the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck not once, but twice. So scary!
After I'd "recovered" down in the delivery room, and finally eaten lunch-- around 2 p.m. they moved me over to my recovery room, which was actually pretty nice and quiet. As soon as my mom had picked the kids up from school Elizabeth had her very first visitors! Leah couldn't WAIT to get her hands on her!! She handled the whole experience really well-- she knew I was headed to the hospital to have the doctor "get the baby out," and there were only a few tears when it came time to leave and go back home without us. She always tells me, "our baby is soooo cute!"
Zach's turn!! Such a proud, protective big brother! He's going to be so sweet with her-- and can't wait to make her smile and laugh. The first night home he says, "so when can we see her crawl?"
The big BIG sister and even bigger helper, Lucy! Apparently she had been waiting ALL day on pins and needles to see if I'd had the baby.
Ha ha ha! I love this face. Not sure what this expression says about how Elizabeth felt about all these visitors!
Grandma Joanie to the rescue!! I'm so thankful my mom was able to be here to help during and after the baby was born. She held down the fort and kept the home fires burning-- cooking all the meals, cleaning tirelessly, folding laundry, tending kids, burping babies, changing diapers, wiping bums, running kids around, grocery shopping, and sacrificing time to be here (and also my dad who supported her coming even though it meant no hot meals for a week). And thanks ESPECIALLY for rearranging her schedule so that she could stay the extra weekend while Jon left for an implant seminar in Chicago-- which meant not leaving me to fend for myself 4-days postpartum with four kids. THANK YOU!!!
Elizabeth passed her 24 hour tests with flying colors and mom was already discharged, so at about 2:30 p.m. the next afternoon, we bid the hospital goodbye and headed home! Hooray!
All bundled up against the Colorado cold and buckled into her car seat for the ride home!
The onesie Lucy picked for her to wear home said, "I'm the new favorite." Very true!
Lucy, Zach, and Leah have been THRILLED with their brand new baby sister and can't get enough of her!! I wake up to all three of them bolting into my room first thing in the morning asking to hold her.
Leah has totally adapted to being a big sister and just begs to hold Elizabeth. We've had a few naughty moments where she's tried to pick her up by herself or she's gone and woken her up, but mostly she's just adapted to no longer being the "baby" and has done great! Yay!
Sweet tiny feet
Perfect little hands and fingernails
Elizabeth totally responds to everyone's voices-- she hears her siblings, or her daddy and she turns her head to where it's coming from. One morning she was nursing and as soon as Jon walked in and started talking she had to turn and see him. It was so sweet! She definitely knows all these different voices. And she LOVES to be snuggled!
Here I am! I didn't realize until after we'd already left the hospital that we didn't get a single picture of me or Jon with Elizabeth which is a little sad, but that's life with FOUR kids, ha ha. So here I am. I am loving every minute of cuddling and snuggling this precious little baby! They are not this tiny for very long. I keep reminding myself that the tired-zombie-up-every-two-hours phase passes pretty quickly, and to just enjoy that this is the last little newborn to grace the Cardon household. Let's just say that it was probably the most emotional pregnancy I had-- with it being unexpected, and right during the move, and trying to settle into a new job and new house, but I wouldn't trade it for the world. She absolutely belongs in our family and it was love at first sight. She is SUCH a precious little gift for our whole family. It has absolutely reaffirmed to me that Heavenly Father knows just what we need even before we do. Welcome sweet Elizabeth Mid, you were so very needed to make our family complete!!
