Josephine Julia Lankford Has Arrived!!

Josephine, or Josie, as we call her, arrived at 7:34 pm on Wednesday, September 22nd. The labor part...going from 2 cm (which is what I was when we got to the hospital) all the way to 10cm wasn't bad at all (whoever invented epidurals should have a spot somewhere in some Hall of Fame somewhere). That part only took 5 and 1/2 hours. The delivery part...well...that was another thing entirely. All in all, 2 hours of pushing and a little extra help from the doctor for a sweet someone who didn't want to make that last little part of her journey into the world.

I'll spare you the details.

But our little Josie is here, all 8 lbs 5 ozs and 20 inches of her. I'll post some pictures soon...right now, I'm just figuring out how to feed her, what I'm supposed to be doing, and how to talk coherently with a little bit of sleep at night. But she's here and she's all ours!

Oh...and the name in case you're curious. Josephine is a name we both really liked. It's definitely recognizable as a name, but unique enough that she probably won't be the 4th Josephine in her school class. And we liked the name Josie, which is what we'll call her. We're not really that big into the meaning of names but as an added bonus, her name means "God will add". And truly, it was only God who could've added to our little family. Julia is because she was named in honor of my grandma, Vienno Julia Peura.

As I type, I'm remembering my grandma and I'm all choked up again. Oh...these blessed hormones or the lack of them now that I'm not pregnant anymore. Whatever it is...pray for Phil. :) He's truly been amazing through all of this. And he is such a natural with Josie. She loves to just lay in his arms and look up at him. I just love it!

4:30am On the Clock But a Smile on My Face

Up this morning for the second time around 4:30am for my inevitable couple of trips to the bathroom every night. If I can fall back asleep, I don't mind them. If I can't...well, then, it makes for an extra long day that usually includes a nap the following day. Why the smile on my face this morning as I crawled back into bed?

Because as I lay there willing myself to get back to sleep(which didn't happen, unfortunately), I hear Phil slowly breathing in and out next to me. And I remember that nine years ago this morning, God, without a doubt in my mind, intervened and allowed us these years together. And if that wasn't enough, nine years later, He's decided to add a sweet baby girl to our family.

I am incredibly blessed.

(And for all those waiting...no, nothing new on the baby front yet. The wait continues...)

Want A Peek at the Nursery?

Well, once again at least a month (or probably now, two months) have gone by without a post. Your wait is over. Have I been too busy? Not really. We finally got the camera battery recharged and bought new camera disc thingys (I'm such a techie) on our woefully unused camera so we're ready when the baby comes. Unused...because no, we don't sit around taking pictures of each other. Ready...because this past Friday we thought the baby might be coming and realized we were not camera ready. But more on that later. First...some pictures of the baby's new digs.

So much fun putting the room and bathroom together! But it's all ready and now that it's September...holy cow, it's September...I feel like she can come anytime. And as said above, we thought that might've been last Friday.

All throughout the morning and early afternoon I just didn't feel like the baby was moving around in her normal patterns. I felt uneasy and wondered if I should call the dr's office. I didn't necessarily want to be labeled with "first-time mom anxiety" along with a gentle eye rolling, but then decided, "Heck...I don't care what they think, I'm going to call." To my surprise, they told me to come to the hospital to get hooked up with some monitors just to check and make sure everything was okay.

Well...two and a half hours later, after they had put in an IV (oh, how that doesn't feel good) for fluids because I was a bit dehydrated, I was shocked to learn that apparently I was having contractions every 2 minutes apart since I had been hooked up. Uh...what? I didn't feel anything. I could see them on the monitor but wasn't feeling it. The dr. checked me (and let me just say here without going into too much detail...that is not a pleasant thing) and said I was 80% effaced and 2 cm.

Again...um, what? I had just gone for my normal dr. appt the day before and was 30% and completely closed. So apparently these contractions were doing something. They said if things progressed after a few more hours they were going to admit me and we were having the baby tonight. Uh...I didn't have my bag with me (at this point, I hadn't even packed a bag yet) and told them so. The cheerful response of my nurse? "Oh that's okay...all we need is your insurance card." So funny.

I called Phil to let him know what was going on and he got there about 6:30. The dr. coming in for the night shift just happened to be my regular dr. and he checked me again after 7:00. Nothing had progressed (except the puzzling regularity of these contractions, which darn it, I still really couldn't feel) so he said to just go on home. The nurse then when into a long discourse about how to time the contractions to know if and when we should come back if we needed to. I didn't want to point out the obvious, but my big question was how could I time them if I really couldn't feel them?

So...all that to say is I think I've been having contractions off and on since Friday night...still not completely sure if that's what it is or if it's just the baby moving, and just playing it by ear, I guess. I have my weekly appt with the dr. tomorrow morning so we'll see if anything has progressed. Is Baby Lankford (still not going to name her Philipina) going to wait until the 23rd to arrive? Bets are on, dates have been picked, (sorry Kristi, but Aug. 30th has come and gone) and Jared...bite your tongue for saying the 28th. We'll let you know! Oh...and for those of you have been wanting a pregnancy picture...here I am at almost 37 weeks.