Our first little girl

It took a lot of convincing.  He wanted a hot tub in exchange.  Can you believe a HOT TUB in exchange for about 2 million sperm?  Of course, it was so well worth it and he never did get that hot tub.  After the boys, and after we could see the light at the end of the tunnel that was Pikey’s toddlerhood, I really felt that we had a girl waiting for us.  Not because i really WANTED a girl – I was very happy with my boys and felt very comfortable with boys.  It is hard to remember and even believe this far out, but in the trenches of diapers and nursing and up every 2 hours at night, you think that you get used to one sex.  So I was comfortable with the boys and wasn’t really wanting a girl but thought it might round out the family nice and I’m always up for something new and different.  But I really felt, deep within me, that there was a girl waiting.  I had no idea there were really TWO waiting.  So, for 18 months (I honestly think it was that long) Jamie and I discussed and went back and forth and hemmed and hawed and cried and fought and finally decided to go for Number Three.  I had read Taking Charge of Your Fertility by then and was charting and knew my fertile times and yadda yadda.  So I identified a week of Prime Time and harrassed the man, even when he was sick, for some of the moibile members.  Can you believe any man who would refuse the request for “intimate time”?  By the end of the week he was DONE.  Why I thought we needed to TRY to get pregnant after never trying for the first two, I had no idea, but this girl had my brain in a whirl.

I’d had preterm labor with both boys and actually gave birth to Pike on week 35 day 6 of that pregnancy, AND had been hospitalized until week 35 of that pregnancy AND stayed bedridden until week 35 day 5 of that pregnancy, so we were somewhat concerned that I really did have preterm problems.  So my midwife (I had homebirths for Pike, Sisssy and Ellen) declared me disabled at around 6 months and I never went back to work (outside the house) after that.  One of the best decisions of my life.  The kids have never been in daycare and having them home and being WITH them has always been very important to me.

I never had preterm with Caroline.  I knew she was a girl from conception.  I never had a clue with the boys, but I KNEW Sissy was a girl and we had no diagnostic testing.  Crunchy folk, we are.  I did, however, begin leaking amniotic fluid one day, after i had passed the 40 week mark and since I had broken water before going into labor with both boys, expected labor to begin shortly.  It didn’t.  I went to bed that night wondering when she would come.

I went to bed the next night wondering when she would come.  I took my temperature every 4 hours, kept hydrated, boosted my immune system and took much Vitamin C and probably other stuff.

My midwife began to get anxious on the 3rd day even though I had a very certain inner calm.  I’d been GBS+ with Pike and we had just decided to treat me as if I were GBS+ again with Sissy by boosting my immune system and a shot of abx when labor began.  I decided after still no labor this day to get have Pike nurse really really well and see if that wouldn’t kick-start labor.  It started the contractions up but nothing really settled in until just before we were supposed to pick Jesse up from his first day of Kindergarten.  Finally labor started in earnest and I went from no labor to giving birth in 3 hours.  It was a wild ride and she was born in the water (we had a birthing pool setup in the livingroom) with Tata keeping the boys entertained.  Of course she was a she and perfect in every way.  She had a VERY tangled cord, however, and it was wrapped everywhere, looped all around her body, her neck, from torso to crotch, it was almost impossible to detangle her.

We celebrated the birth with spinach, chicken and tomato Zachary’s pizza.

She has turned into a horse-crazed girl who kills me with her physical beauty and softens my heart with her tenderness.  She is the best big sister her little sister could ever have and is constantly following her brothers around, trying out their maturity and sometimes besting them with her insight and responsibility.  She LOVES iguanas and early on named so many “Ralph” that we frequently will call the backyard and any iguana we see “Ralphie”.  Like her brothers at this age, she is addicted to anything Harry Potter and cannot go to sleep without one of the zillion CD’s we’ve burned playing in the background, narrating yet another adventure from Hogwarts.  Until she was about 3 she was my faithful companion and would NOT let her father do ANYTHING for her, but around 4 she decided that he was her main parent and now cannot stand to have him out of her sight.  I remember him asking me, “WHEN will she let ME do something for her?” in frustration and now it is *I* who sing the same lament.    She LOVES to be waited on and doted upon and would probably have done much better as an only child, but then I think that about each one of them. 

I am SO glad she decided to join us and she shows us the straight and narrow path daily.  We would be wild and uncivilized without our little Sissy and I cannot imagine my life without her light shining through.  Happy sweet birthday my girl.  I love you more than I can say.