New Girl

As promised from last time, here is the story of Emily Brooke’s arrival:

Friday morning (4/5) began like most any other, with Jarom getting up and getting ready and getting off to work before anyone else in the house had woken up. Once at work Jarom was enjoying his first hour, the one before most of his coworkers arrive and start chatting and asking him to do stuff. Right at 7:50 he got a call from Alixa informing him that her water had broken. This was uncharted territory for the Alixa, as in both previous deliveries her water was broken at the hospital. She wasn’t really having any contractions, so they decided to wait a few minutes and call the doctor’s office when they opened at 8. Except they didn’t open until 9. So then she called our good friend Ali, who is a delivery nurse, for her advice. Except she also happens to be one of those crazy runner people and she was out for a leisurely 20-mile jog. Eventually she was able to get in touch with her doctor who advised her to come on down to the hospital. This was a problem because that morning was set aside to go see Disney on Ice: Rockin’ Ever After at the Mavs arena. The doctor was surprisingly unsympathetic to Alixa’s desire to go with Jenna and Bo to see the show. So Jarom left work and headed home. There he found Alixa putting the finishing touches on her makeup. Nobody wants to look homely in their birthing video, right? He threw some stuff in a bag and sent it with Lix to the hospital, and then he packed up the kids and headed to the show. You just can’t let tickets like that go to waste. Jenna was all dressed up like Cinderella and the kids had a great time watching two hours of ice skating awesomeness with all their favorite Disney characters. Jarom did get a strange look from Jenna’s preschool teacher after Jenna told her that her mommy was “at the hospital getting my new sister out of her tummy.” But Jarom had his phone on him and if contractions had started he probably would have left the show early, although definitely not until after Merida won the archery competition because the pyrotechnics were sweet.

 Sunday best + crocs + a shark hat = awesome

 Best friends/excavation crew

After the show the crew trekked back up North to Frisco where everyone got a quick lunch and Jarom left the kids with Mario and headed out to be with Lix. She hadn’t made much progress and was mostly upset that the Wi-Fi signal in the room was terrible and didn’t allow her to catch up on her shows while she sat in bed and absorbed Pitocin. Sometime around 2:30 her body started really getting into it, with contractions getting stronger. Now Alixa has always wanted to do a natural birth without painkillers, but she chickened out with babies 1 and 2. This time she wanted to save some money (we are thinking about getting a new minivan for her and all savings go towards that) so she was really trying to hold out. She was doing great until around 3:45, when she caved and asked for the epidural. But at that moment the guy was in with a C-section and would be a few minutes, so she had to wait. And then the window had passed, because this little girl was coming quickly, whether Lix could feel it or not. And based on the facial expressions and the intonation of her blood-curdling screams, she could feel the pain. Jarom felt very much like he had been transported to a movie set in medieval times where the doctor goes in the room and you can just hear screaming through the door, except that he wasn’t waiting outside the door. But Lix did great, and at 4:00 Emily arrived, crying very loudly to let us know that she would fit in with our existing 2 loud children and our 1 loud cat. She weighed in at 6 pounds 2 ounces and 18 inches, for you stat heads out there.

While I wouldn’t aggressively recommend childbirth without drugs, it isn’t without benefits. Apparently the recovery is noticeably better if you haven’t had an epidural. At least that was Lix’s experience. Within a few hours she felt like she wanted to walk around a little, and the following days she felt much better than she had the last two times. I’m not sure how to weigh that against the most intense pain a woman can go through, but it’s something. Friday night Jarom headed home to keep an eye on Jenna and Bo and not sleep on a hospital fold out couch. It was a terrible experience. Jenna was entering the bad part of some sort of virus so he had to go get her some medicine. When he returned he found her hoarsely calling for help in her bed, which was now soaked because she had peed in it. He pulled her out and got her started in the bath while he put her sheets in the wash. Poor Bo was obviously not going to sleep through all this mess so he let him come hang out too. After Jenna was all clean she went to sleep on Jarom’s bed with him and Bo went back to his room. This was about 12:30. At about 2:30 Jenna woke Jarom up by telling him that she had to throw up. He quickly picked her up and carried her into the bathroom, barely making it to the sink before Jenna let fly. The fact that Jenna knew she was going to throw up, told Jarom, that Jarom was able to wake up quickly and get Jenna into the bathroom without tripping on some toy and that all the vomit was contained in the sink is the strongest evidence of a loving God that I’ve ever encountered. The rest of the night was uneventful.

Saturday morning Mario and Jarom and the kids went down to visit Emily, who was doing quite well. Jenna couldn’t hold her due to the illness, and in fact didn’t get to hold her until today. But both she and Bo were very happy to see her. Nate called while the kids were there and speaking to Bo asked if he was excited about his new sister. Bo excitedly replied, “Yeah, Emily Brooke!” None of us had ever heard him say that name nor did we have any idea that he even knew it. It was a very adorable moment. There were also a few visits from some of Alixa’s good friends, who all commented on how tiny Emmy is (this is the standard reaction so far) and generously set up a help schedule of some meals and some babysitting during the first week to make Alixa’s life easier. There has really been a ton of help from many people, and it has all been much appreciated. By Saturday afternoon Lix was ready to get out of there, but not before she got her much anticipated Celebration Dinner of steak and lobster. It was fabulous.

 Watching TV with Sonic

 Easter morning. Weeks later, same hat

Same nebulizer, same Jenna, different sized face

Bo got Tusk from Grandma. Instantly best friends.

The past week has been a crash course in remembering how to have a newborn. Sleep when you can, accept the help that people offer you, and take strong mental pictures of the cute moments to get you through the 3 am crying sessions. Jarom was able to work from home a few days this week, and has put together cribs and moved around rocking chairs and looked for breast pumps and baby clothes and all sorts of other baby stuff that has been boxed up for the past 18 months or more. Generally speaking the kids have been great, although Bo has been particularly sensitive and grumpy this week and we think that has something to do with the upheaval of our little world here. Jenna is pretty much done with her illness, Lix is dropping pounds like crazy, and Emmy is a mostly content little kiddo, so we really don’t have anything to complain about. I hope you are all as lucky as we are.