All four babes

Weeks 8 through 14

I blinked. I swear that's what it feels like. It truly feels like I blinked and now Sam is already three months old and in daycare and I'm back at work. The first day back has gotten easier with each baby and with Sam I cried for only a few moments in the daycare parking lot on the first day. After that it's just been a whirlwind of getting kids dressed and ourselves ready and out of the door on time.

Sam is already rolling over - sporadically - which feels entirely too soon. Overall she's just a happy and easygoing baby. She's not quite sleeping through the night yet, but she's only waking up once in the middle of the night and then again between 4:00 and 6:00 AM, which works out with our work schedule.

This kid also has such great head/neck control. When she's laying on her back she looks like she's trying to do a sit up and really she prefers sitting upright and facing out if we're holding her. For Christmas she got an insert for our highchair so now she can sit at the dinner table with us and she loves it.

My favorite part of the day is still pick up time. Everyone is always all smiles and it just melts my heart.

Weeks 1 through 7

Life with four. The days literally fly by. I'm in slight denial that I only have five weeks left of my leave and I'm trying to soak up as much as I can while I'm still home. I remember being frustrated and exhausted and napping all of the time when I was home with Stasa and Lexi and even a bit with Tommy. But this time I've only napped a handful of times and that was all within the first couple of weeks and when Samantha's up all night, like last night, I've been calm - tired, yes - but just accepting the fact that she's going to be awake for awhile and so I migrate to the living room and watch television while I walk her around the house or nurse her until she falls asleep.

Now that we're days away from Thanksgiving I finally got serious about the holidays and actually have advantage of being alone with the baby to shop. I was happy to announce last night that I'm nearly finished - I just need stocking stuffers for the kids and Tom and some gifts for family. Tom and I are also going to be canning jams and jellies again this year and I've been scouring Pinterest for new recipes.

Now that Thanksgiving break is in full swing I need to pull myself together, straighten up the house and find something to do with Stasa...maybe bake a pie or two!

Here's the littlest lady's first seven weeks.

It's another...GIRL!

Sunday, October 4th at 10:39 am we welcomed our fourth baby, another girl, into the world. Samantha Lee was born at 7 lbs and 15 oz and 21" long with a perfectly round head.

I was so uncomfortable toward the end and just done with being pregnant and by Saturday was still kind of disappointed that I had no progress up to that point. Saturday afternoon we took the kids to the mall to walk around since it was rainy and chilly outside. That night we put the kids to bed early and Tom wound up falling asleep after putting them to bed, which was probably good since he got a solid night of sleep. I stayed up until about 9:30 or so reading downstairs. I was dozing on and off and had a couple of faint contractions so I decided to go up to bed.

As usual I woke up in the middle of the night to pee, as did Lexi. Then around 4:00 am I woke up with a really painful contraction. I got up to pee and then tried falling back asleep, but by the time I started dozing again I had another contraction. I finally decided to get up to see if they would go away or strengthen. And since it was already 4:15 or so I figured I may as well brush my teeth before going downstairs, which then woke up Tom. I told him not to get up, but he knew better and came downstairs to keep me company. The contractions didn't go away and were about 8-9 minutes apart and strong. After about an hour or so of them I called the on call doctor to see what we should do. While we waited for the call back I had Tom call his mom to have her come stay with the kids just in case we wound up having to go in. 

Dr. Shin called me back and sounded so groggy. Of course I would be too at 5:30 on a Sunday morning. She asked what my progress was at my last appointment and was surprised when I reminded her that I had none. She said to go ahead and get to the hospital, but not to be surprised if I was sent home. I was pretty sure this was the real deal - I mean I know my body well and the contractions were painful and by the time Dr. Shin had called me I was having to stop to rock and breathe through each contraction. 

We got to the hospital just before 7:00 am and went up to Labor and Delivery to get checked and see if I was going to stay or be sent home. I gowned up and got in bed and was shocked to discover that I was already 6 cm and "stretchy." Of course that meant that we were staying put. The nurse started my IV so I could get my epidural in time and while the contractions were only about 10 minutes apart they seemed to be doing the job and I was able to breathe through them. 

The anesthesiologist eventually came in and placed my epidural. Shortly after that Dr. Shin came in and broke my water and they placed a catheter to empty my bladder.

Once we knew we were staying and it was officially baby day, we started spreading the word to let other people know and Aunt Peggy came over to keep us company. Tom and Aunt Peggy got some breakfast and we sat around chatting for a bit. 

The next time I was checked I was around 8 cm. The nurse kept checking on me and was paranoid that I'd be ready to deliver and I wouldn't know. I promised that I would be able to tell and would alert her the minute I felt like I was ready. After an hour or so I started feeling a lot of pressure build up and knew I was ready. I had Tom call in the nurse and gave Aunt Peggy a hug goodbye. 

Dr. Shin came back in to check me and announced that it was indeed time to deliver. While she gowned up and the nurses got things ready for delivery and the baby, I tried my hardest to not push. Once they were ready they had me do one small practice push and then told me I could push for real with the next contraction. I pushed through two contractions and out came baby girl. Tom got to announce that it was a girl and Dr. Shin put her on my chest while Tom cut the cord. I got to hold the baby for quite some time before they took her over to the warmer to check her vitals and clean her up. Her APGAR was 9 and 9 and Tom took a lot of pictures while the nurse cleaned her up, weighed and measured her. 

This was also the first time I actually saw the placenta. With all of the other babies I wasn't really paying attention after the baby came out, so I didn't even notice what was going on. 

I feel like this delivery was the calmest. Besides me and Tom there was only Dr. Shin and two nurses - one for me and one for baby. After Samantha was born and she and I were cleaned up, everyone pretty much left us alone for a bit. She immediately latched on and nursed for about an hour. During that time we sent messages out to everyone to let them know we had another baby girl and Tom went to get Aunt Peggy to let her meet the peanut. 

We were in the hospital for 29 hours and then came home and got settled in with our regular routine. The kids have been so happy with having a baby in the house and the biggest problem has been the arguments over who gets to hold her first and for how long. 

Samantha is the perfect addition to our family. Our two Thomases were destined to be surrounded by girls.