Piper's Birth Day!

As much as I wanted to go into natural labor with this baby, it didn't appear that was going to happen anytime soon as we inched closer and closer to the due date.  At 38 weeks, my doctor mentioned induction with my past history of big babies and my blood platelets were continuing to drop.  (They ended up jumping way up when we got the blood work back from this appointment)  I was officially miserable and agreed to it, we set the date for Thursday, December 12, my actual due date was Tuesday, December 17.  

As for the sex, Adam and I were pretty sure it was a boy.  I wasn't 100% sure…didn't pack gender specific clothes…actually, I didn't pack anything for the baby :).  I had washed a couple boy and girl pieces, blankets too.  We had a boy and girl name picked out, but hadn't even talked about middle names yet.  But that's the beauty of not finding out, you have a 50/50 chance and you don't really know until he/she arrives!  And I wouldn't change those 3 moments of hearing the sex of my babies for anything!!!

 We checked in at 6am, I think I slept about 4 hours that night…too excited to sleep!  Yes, I was huge…this was 1 of about 3 outfits that fit the last couple weeks.

These cute kids had their last day of preschool before holiday break with a visit from Santa Claus and holiday parties.  Kudos to Grandma, Grandpa, and Alli who got them dressed and to cooperate for a picture!  It was so nice to have them occupied at school and not running around the hospital room…they had plenty of time for that.

 Henley was soaking up her last hours as the youngest grand baby.  

**Here's where I will probably begin to bore you with all the labor/delivery details, consider yourself warned.**

This induction was pretty similar to my other two.  I was all hooked up and pitocin was pumping by 6:45.  Doctor came in and broke my water at 7:15, I was dilated to a 3 but baby was still up high (pattern of the day).  My platelets were at 145,000, the highest they have been my whole pregnancy…same exact way it was with Cooper.  This is always my #1 concern at the hospital because if they aren't at or above 100,000 = no epidural.  Yikes, that's never a part of my birthing plan!  At 10:15 I was dilated between a 3 and 4.  I got my epidural not long after this point and was feeling much more comfortable then.  At 12:30 I was dilated between a 6 and 7, baby still up high.   A little after 1:00, I was feeling a lot of pressure and more pain than before, my lower back was killing me.  At 1:30 I called the nurse in and sure enough I was dilated to a 10…however, baby was still up high.  She upped my epidural to help with the back pain and had me turn to one side to help get the baby to drop down.  After about 30 minutes, she had me turn to the other side for about 30 minutes.  I think the nurse checked me again at 2:30, the baby had dropped and we were ready to push!  At this point I could hear my kids coming down the hall, my dad and Alli had picked them up from preschool.  Adam caught them outside the door and sent to waiting room :).  Nurse had me practice push and then stopped me immediately and said, don't push anymore - we have to get Dr. Wai here.  At the risk of too much information, she literally held my legs together and told me to relax completely until the Doc made it over.  Luckily that was only about 5 minutes :).  He scrubbed in, prepped everything and with 1 push we had a baby at 2:55!!!  

 Dr. Wai immediately gave her to me and let Adam announce the sex.  He said, It's a GIRL and I was totally shocked but so happy!  I can still hear the exact way he said it :).  The doctors and nurses were commenting on her chubby cheeks but she still didn't seem as big to me as Laney did.

 Once again, it happened so fast and was so easy I couldn't believe it.  It was very similar to Laney's delivery.  I was so happy and thankful for our newest baby girl.

 We knew her name was Piper but middle name was going to be determined later.  No story behind Piper, I don't even remember what made me think of it.  However, it was our favorite name from the beginning of my pregnancy.  Actually, I really loved Penelope but Adam vetoed that so Piper was next in line.  

 At 9 lbs, 7 oz and 21 1/4 inches long - our sweet Piper was here!

 Love this.  Adam was right there with her while she got checked out.    

 And here's the reason why I was so winded going up our stairs, could hardly roll over in bed at night and why it took me 5 minutes to put on any shoes!  This big baby girl was taking up a lot of room in my body!!

 Adam brought the 2 kids back to meet Piper first.  They came in all smiles and Cooper had a pink Jayhawk hat for her.  He said, "here, we got this for the baby."  He was more concerned about my IV and all the machines around me, lots and lots of questions.  Laney was just all smiles.

 Oh my sweet Cooper William, something tells me you are going to have your hands full with these 2 little sisters!

 This is so, so typical.

 They were pretty pumped that Piper had brought them presents!

Grandma and Grandpa with grand baby #6 and the third this year!  And it's the 4th girl in a row!  Landree, Henley, and Piper are all within 6 months of one another, so fun!

And thanks to Grandpa for running to In and Out Burger for me soon after meeting Piper…I was starving all day long!  

We were so happy Aunt Alli was here for her birth.

And just like that we were a family of 5! 

 I have no group pictures, no picture of Adam and Piper, no family of 5 picture and no pic of Piper with my ob who was so great…total failure :(.  We were trying to just enjoy the moment and not be worried about having the camera out the whole time…that and our 4 and 2 year old make for quite a lively hospital environment.

Welcome to the world Piper Jones, we couldn't be happier to have you here and part of our family!!!