Welcome Lea Paxton Eble-Schrader!

Introducing the newest addition to the blogosphere:

Lea Paxton Eble-Schrader
6 lbs. 7.6 ounces, 19.75 inches
January 31, 2009, 8:23am

39 Weeks Gestation!!!





After a long day and night of regular contractions, Sharon finally began to feel some significant pain (she has an acutely high threshold for this, which did her well in subsequent hours) at about 2am. We woke up Grammy (Sharon's mom) who had come in from the Jersey Shore earlier in the day and had her switch places with us in the futon (where we practice a significant amount of attachment parenting by co-sleeping with Hallie) and we called ourselves a cab, whose arrival was amazingly fast. On the way to the hospital, we called Aunt Laura, who jumped out of bed, into the car, and managed (thank goodness) to arrive safely in Philly by four am (without having stopped for coffee on the way...do not try this at home, folks!).

Laura got there in time to help us pace the halls of Pennsylvania Hospital for a couple of hours. By six am, the contractions were more intense and coming one to two minutes apart and our room in Labor and Delivery was ready (we managed to score the newly-renovated birthing suite, but did not have time to enjoy its amenities). Things happened very quickly from there on out. By seven am, Sharon began to transition into hard labor and by a quarter or a half an hour later, she went from six to ten centimeters dilated in a matter of seconds. We remain ever grateful to her nurse for recognizing this and re-checking Sharon herself after the resident toodled off, assuming we still had a lot of time, to do something else. At that point, Sharon's water had broken, but no one but Sharon had evidence of this, and things began in earnest. And less than an hour later, Lea made her debut.

The irony of the whole event? At six centimeters, and operating under the assumption that the resident was correct in her assessment that we still had a ways to go, Sharon called for an epidural. But anesthesia was held up with a C-Section. Lea did not receive the memo, though, and decided to come before the epidural. Thus, Sharon had a natural childbirth, without any drugs at all. Until after the delivery, that is. It turns out that the pushing was so intense that Sharon needed a spinal block AFTER Lea was delivered so that they could patch her up (and not cause her excruciating pain to intensify even further).

Anyway, all of that was well worth this:







I am also happy to report that Lea, living up to the acronym G.E., which not only stands for Great Expectation but also Great Eater, came out hungry and ready to nurse. She was rooting and smacking her lips very loudly while I held her in L&D as they finished sewing up Sharon's tears. Lea was relieved to nurse for the first time and we were thrilled that Sharon's milk had already become to come in (truth be told, Sharon's milk has been coming in for weeks now and its flow had intensified over the past three days when all of the pre-labor hormone changes began to kick in). Thus, I have little doubt that little Lea has taken in more milk today than did big sister Hallie who set some sort of record today by drinking fewer than four ounces, total, of goat milk.

Before I go, a few more pictures of our little girl with some of the important people in her life:

Here's a picture of Aunt Laura holding Lea. None of this would have been possible without Aunt Laura's assistance in the delivery room and inspiration more generally. We are all so grateful for your presence there and are sorry that we needed to wake you in the middle of the night!



And here's a shot of Grammy holding Lea. In the background is Dr. Abbasi, one of the neonatalogists from the ICN/CHOP who took care of our twins and who always encouraged us to have another baby. Her motto: if one mommy is good, then two mommies are better. Thank you Soraya! We are so happy that it was you who had the opportunity to assess Lea today after she was born.



Grammy's role in all of this was really significant. She dropped everything to come down and take care of Hallie for us and make this event possible.

In the same vein, we are grateful for Sheila and Brett, who came over today and relieved Ami (who made it possible for Grammy to get to the hospital to meet Lea sooner rather than later). We could not have done it without them, since they not only hung out with Hal, but were also the prime movers of our furniture and de-clutterers of our mess.

And, here's a picture of your's truly with her little girl. I don't look great after an evening of labor coaching, but I'm glad that I managed to stay upright for the whole thing, help Sharon through it (even if I did have the tendency to continue grasping her leg AFTER a contraction was over and while she was trying to relax...hey, at least I didn't break it...and only managed to burst into tears once during the whole process:



Finally, I want to thank all of our friends, virtual and real, who have supported us through this pregnancy. It was no easy matter to decide that we were brave or crazy enough to do this again. We were inspired by the many micropreemie moms (you know who you are) who carried their subsequent pregnancies a lot longer than their micropreemie ones and whose strategies for coping with things (psychologically, perinatalogically, etc) were so important to us. We are thrilled to have everyone out there rooting for our family, offering to drop everything to come lend a hand, and just being there with us on this journey.

Still Waiting...

Last night, Sharon stopped in at the PETU for monitoring since she was feeling contractions more and the baby less. They hooked her up to a monitor and, as on Wednesday, she was contracting every three or four minutes. But this time she had dilated some more (from 2cm to 3cm). They pulled over an ultrasound, checked the fluid around the baby and found it to be okay, and called our OB. The OB had her stay for monitoring for an hour and when labor hadn't progressed further, Sharon was sent home.

Sharon had a few more intense contractions last night but they subsided with a change in position. And she woke up today contracting. And she has been contracting ever since. (She decided to take the day off, thinking this was IT). Every three or four minutes kind of like clock-work with a few of them being more intense than they have been, and definitely lower down and more in her back (as in back labor).

But none of those double-me-over-so-I-can't-breathe,-let-alone-talk contractions that we read/hear about. Just continual contractions (I guess like the ones last time that the monitor had never picked up). And an awful headache which went away after she ate something substantial.

So, what would you do? Would you go in for another check up at the PETU? Would you stay put? Let us know (especially if you've been through this before; remember, the only labor experience Sharon has ever had was quite a bit out of the ordinary so we are not really able to use that for a gauge).

No News is...

No News.

Sharon had her third non-stress test today and it turns out that she is having contractions every three to four minutes. However, not only is she not feeling these, but they also appear not to be having any further effect on her cervix. She was dilated two centimeters and 70% effaced last week and so she remained this week. So now we wait and see.

Our bag is packed, of course, and we've finished assembling all the furniture, washing and sorting 90% of the clothing for the baby, etc. I would have bet that she would have gone into hard labor last night, if only because we had a bit of an ice storm (followed by a rain storm, so now we just have a mess) around here. And no child care. That should have added up to a perfect, Murphy-inspired storm, but it did not. The weather reports for the next few days, happily, are not too bad, so if she does go into labor soon, at least we won't have to consider calling an ambulance to take us eight blocks to the hospital because the roads are too treacherous (and the wait is too long) for a taxi.

Otherwise; Hallie still has a runny nose but is otherwise doing fine. She's getting more adventurous in her toast-consumption (I think she's now up to chomping 1/6 of a slice of toast at a time) and has been in a very sweet and cuddly phase lately. No more vomiting either, so we are now 21 days spew-free this year. And counting.

Keep your fingers crossed for an easy, pain-free (or low pain) labor. And I promise to try to update regularly. The blogosphere will be the first to know (well, maybe not the FIRST, but still...)

Hallie's Cuteness

At dinner yesterday evening, Hallie was watching one of her favorite DVDs, Elmo in Grouchland. She really gets a kick out of Grizzy and her bad attitude (which slowly transforms into one of cheerful cooperation, something that Grizzy is loathe to admit because this might, after all, incur her the loss of her grouch identity card or something). Hallie loves all of the songs (the video features some of Hallie's favorites, like C Is For Cookie and Rubber Ducky and Sing, and who can resist the extended remix of Elmo's Song? Certainly not me; I have this thing running through my head most of the time. Anyway, one of the songs is the Nightbug Boogie. Hallie seems to love bugs (and snakes and all sorts of animals, really). When the song came on, Hallie stuck her finger up her nose. As usual, I said: "Hallie, don't stick your finger up your nose." She retorted: "Boogie." And it was then that I realized that she had linked her boogie (which she was busy excavating) to the Nightbug Boogie. Very smart. And quite appropriate given that grouches love slimy, yucky, grungy things so much.

Since I don't sit there with my camera at dinner (often, at least), I have neither a video nor a picture of this. But one thing that we did manage to get on film (or digital medium) is this:

 

It would seem that Hallie and Karina had zonked out on the couch after a very active play session. Not so! Earlier last week, Sharon had taught Hallie how to pretend sleep (complete with side effects that are sadly lost on a digital still). Hallie loves to lie down and do her snore (which kind of sounds like a cappuccino maker if you ask me) and close her eyes. Hallie taught this to Karina and the two of them did it on command for us on the couch the other night when Karina was over (for what was, indeed, a very active play session that led Hallie to zonk out quickly once she did go upstairs to bed).

Hallie has also been experimenting with couture of various kinds. This is her Super Hallie look, which is composed of various components of different Disney Princess outfits:

 

Here Hallie is practicing her drums (I have threatened to buy her congas...Sharon was not terribly amused, though) in a very adorable hoodie:

 

Lately, Hallie's also been enjoying playing with her playdough (which is now safe since we're pretty sure that she is okay with wheat products, which playdough contains). Sharon took this cute video where Hallie is playing and watching herself play in the fisher price video karaoke thing that Aunt Laura, Uncle Bryan, and the cousins got Hallie for Chanukah:



I think this qualifies as pretend play, so take that EI evaluators!

Otherwise, the busy-ness around here continues. Our wonderful friends Brett and Sheila swooped in this weekend and helped us get both Hallie's room and the nursery in order. The crib is now in its place and the futon--rebuilt with skill and craft by Brett so that we did not have to use the car jacks to keep it from falling apart (please don't ask!)--is in the bigger of the two bedrooms on the second floor. This is Hallie's room, and also doubles as the family sleeping room. Sheila helped me lend some order to the basement so that we can both find things and not trip over debris and kill ourselves when doing so. Kim brought back the last of the baby items (the car seat, baby bath, bouncy chair, and more clothing that Taylor has outgrown) so those things need to be sorted and put away. But otherwise, we're good to go.

And that is a good thing, because Sharon is now FULL term. The momentous milestone was reached on Saturday but I'm even more excited that a. the baby will be an Aquarian and b. the baby, unless she's fast tracking it out of Sharon in the next nine and a half hours or so, will be born under a new president (and one whom I respect, who also happens to be the first US president to have graduated from Columbia College in the City of New York, which is where I went. Oh and let's not forget that Obama is the first African American president. His oath of office tomorrow will be a very nice, but sadly posthumous gift to Dr. Martin Luther King). So, for lots of reasons, both personal and political, I am very happy that the Great Expectation has hung in for the long haul.

Finally, for those of you keeping tally, we're up to 16 days without vomit in 2009. This is way cool. (But please note that this post, which I began on the 16th was only just completed on the 20th...it's tragic when life gets in the way of blogging!)

The Polls are Now Open!

Okay, I am planning a real, substantive post, but for all of you survey junkies, please see the left sidebar. I just added polls on the Great Expectation's arrival date (her due date is February 7th) and birth weight. She was running a couple of days ahead of schedule at the last (34 week) ultrasound and was in the head down position and weighed approximately 5 lbs 5 ounces (give or take a pound). That's all the info we have until tomorrow's first-ever non-stress test (Sharon was appalled to discover that she is having these weekly due to advanced maternal age, but is looking forward to a nice nap or session with an E-book on her iPhone--what's with letters before words these days, anyway?).

Also, in potentially big news, we MAY have a name. Then again we may not have a name. But we have come closer than ever before to naming this little girl. A big priority for us is making sure that Hallie can pronounce her little sister's first name, at least. And we know that she can say this one. One big clue: it's NOT Elmo.

So vote away and check back soon-ish for a real post and some pics.