On Susie

So here's the story I never really got to:

I was due the 24th of February, a Wednesday. I went to bed that night feeling very grouchy, but we had an induction set up for Friday morning, so I just accepted that my baby would be born on Friday. I woke up about two hours later, and then 1 second later, I felt a slight pop and then a gush. I hopped out of bed and rushed to the bathroom, told Landon, called the hospital and the doctor on call. The doctor told me to put a pad in and see if anymore fluid came. If so, or if contractions started, to come in. So I put the pad in and laid back down. I could feel contractions starting, and in a couple minutes, there was another gush. I got up, changed underwear again, and we repacked the suitcase. I was quite distraught about the whole thing. I didn't want to go into labor when I was already really tired, nor did I want to feel any more contractions that I had to (one of the beauties of being induced). But it was time, nonetheless. In the few minutes it took to throw the last minute things into the suitcase and tell my mom we were off, my contractions got to around 3 minutes apart. Fortunately for me, the hospital is five minutes away. We got there and they got me all set up with monitors and whatnot. I was dilated to a six, but things were moving right along, so by the time the anesthesiologist showed up, I was at an 8 and they were considering an intrathecal instead of the epidural. I'd heard not great things about the intrathecal (Thanks Jen) and the anesthesiologist gave me the choice, so epidural it was. Except that it couldn't catch up with the contractions, so I felt MUCH more pain than I wanted to. But, that being said, it was over pretty quickly. She was born at 3:59 AM, three and a half hours after my water broke and the contractions started.

Poor little thing was swollen and bruised, not to mention the large broken blood vessel in one of her eyes. Labor just went so fast and hard, she got beat up.

Landon basically let me name her. His favorite name was Olivia, which I liked also, but it was the #5 most popular name for a baby girl the year before, and I have issues with that (just look at how popular Heather was in 1983). My favorite was Susannah, which he did like, and in the end he let me choose. I knew I was going to use Joyce as her middle name from the moment we found out it was a girl. Joyce is after my grandma, whom I am very close to. Landon was a good sport in letting me call the shots on this. And we think Susie fits her.

Since then, it has been up and down and all around, as you've seen. Yesterday was the first day I've had in a long while of "normal" life. Wow. Having two kids is hard. Right now I'm just trying to keep Dallin's attempted murder counts down, the kids both fed and bathed, and somehow maintain my sanity. Susie is a higher maintenance baby than Dallin was. She is only happy when she is being held, asleep or awake. Needless to say, that is a bit problematic. I suppose I deserve it though, Dallin was so easy as a baby (though that has not seemed to carry over to being a toddler). All in all, right at this moment, my nerves are shot and I just want to eat sweets and sleep forever.

One of those days, I guess.

Looks so innocent, doesn't he..don't be fooled

The little princess....who definitely thinks she is royalty...