We're Home!

What a crazy last few days! We are now home safe and sound and more than a little bit weary. Here's how it went:

I got the call Thursday that my sister was going in to the hospital Friday morning for a version to try to turn her transverse baby, or she was going to have a c-section. (She had already decided that she wanted me there if she did have a c-section, just based on my experiences.) So after lunch, we packed up and headed to Fort Polk. We arrived a little after 10 pm, and after getting our stuff in, and settled, we got to bed around midnight. My sister and I got up at 4:30 am (well, she was up most of the night with contractions) to head off to the hospital at 5 am (not so great for the anti-morning person in me!). She got all settled into her room and the OB/GYN came in to discuss the procedure. The anesthesiologist came in a little later to get things started for the epidural (they only do the version with an epidural). We discussed the options for pain management if she went into a c-section. Then she got the epidural, and was wheeled into the OR for the procedure. The OB did an ultrasound to verify postion before they started and she had turned on her own after the epidural! What a blessing! She was back in her room around 8:30 am and they began the pitocin. The family practice doc came in to monitor labor. He took a VERY hands off approach, didn't break her water, and just let her labor and only checked on her after lunch, and then again before he turned her care over to the OB on call for the weekend. We had the strangest nurse for the day shift...it was almost like she was trying to remember how labor went and what she was supposed to be doing. At 7 pm, we got the new staff. The doc was great and so was the new nurse. They tried to hold her off until her hubby got there from Kansas, but he didn't make it...he was an hour away when the baby was born. She was born at 8:05 pm, weighed 8 lb 10 oz, and 20.75" long! I took some pictures, cut the cord, took more pictures and then handed the camera off to one of my sisters friends so that I could go get my kids and get them to bed. I think we got into bed around 10:30 that night. The next day, we took a morning nap before we went up to the hospital. We were able to visit for a while before the nurse from the day shift the day before remembered that there weren't supposed to be any kids under 14 in the rooms. So, we left and I honestly can't remember what we did for the rest of the day Saturday! On Sunday, we went to the commisary to shop for the ingredients I needed to prepare meals. It was so crazy, there were 5000 troops that came home from Iraq, and there was almost no food left there! By the time we finished that and dinner, it was 9:00 pm, so once again...a late night! On Monday I finished the ingredient shopping at Walmart. Then we began preparing meals and we put together 10 dinners and the one we ate that night before calling it a day! We finished dinner around 8:30 and then I had to get the kids baths before bed...so another late night! Today, we checked out of our hotel and went to my sisters house for school before leaving to come home!

We had a very busy, action packed few days! It will be a rough few days I am sure getting back into our routine. We did manage to stay up with school while we were gone. It did help that the older cousins had school to do too!

I have a few other thoughts that I am trying to put together that I will post later. But I will leave you with a sweet baby picture!