Fay Pauline

Fay's birth story

Thursday May 2, I went to see Rebecca (my midwife) I was due the next day and feeling so very, very tired of being pregnant.  She did a non-stress test and made sure the baby was happy which she was and then checked my cervix.  The baby was very low and I had a very favorable cervix.  Which by 40 weeks has always been the case but my babies just don’t want to come.  She stripped my membranes and gave me an herbal tincture that she calls rocket juice to see if we could get labor going.  Within 10 minutes of drinking the juice I was having contractions 3 minutes apart.  They stayed that way until 10:30 pm when Rebecca came to see if I was progressing, I was so we broke my water at 11:00 pm and Fay was born at 1:10 am.  We called Bob just before Rebecca broke my water and she came to help just in case the kids woke up or we needed to transfer thankfully neither one happened.  It was my longest labor, 12 hours but we did make her come a week or so earlier than she would have come.  Although the labor was long and hard (I was having a harder time relaxing then I have in the past)  I am glad I only had to be pregnant 40 weeks exactly.  I am always amazed at how quickly my nausea goes away after birth, I was throwing up through labor feeling so sick and boom I have a baby and I feel great.  I started eating just a couple of hours after birth and haven’t stopped.  Last week was binge week and I thoroughly enjoyed eating again and being able to satisfy my hunger since it has been nine months since I have been able to do that.  Starving and pregnancy shouldn’t go together.   The only perk, I don’t have any weight to lose but it comes at a high price.   

This time I really thought we were having a boy.  This pregnancy was so similar to Jensen’s in how high my nausea stayed throughout and my weight gain it was much more like Jensen’s pregnancy.   I have always been wrong on the gender but Derek and Rebecca thought it was a boy too.  We had a boy’s name picked out but hadn’t been able to decide on a girl’s name.  We had about 6 that we thought were OK but I was so sure it was a boy I didn’t worry too much about it.  So when SHE came out I was shocked!  Really I must have check 4 times to be sure.  Of course we are very happy to have another girl a little afraid of the teenage years but we have some time to learn to be better parents before we have to deal with that.  

Rebecca and my mom left about 3 am Derek and I talked about her name and tried to get a little sleep.  Derek got about 2 hours but I couldn’t sleep still too high on adrenalin to sleep.  I was trying to pick a name so over the 2 hours I called her each name we liked and tried to decide.  We hadn’t told our kids I was in labor but Jensen has this internal awareness and always knows when something has happened and was up and in our room at 6:00am exactly(he is not allowed to get up before then).   He saw the baby laying there in bed and I asked if he wanted to guess what it was.  He of course said a boy.  When I said it was a girl he response was “oh shoot” Then he climbed into the bed next to her and me and started talking about how tiny she was and how cute and has been in love ever since.  I discussed names with him and he liked the name Fay, I still wasn’t convinced.  

Siesa and Elsie woke up about 7 they both came into the room.  Their eyes got so wide with excitement.  How fun for them to go to sleep and wake up to a baby.  Of course the girls were so happy to have another princess in the family and oohed and aahed over her all morning long.  We still needed to pick a name so we gave the girls a few choices they liked another name and for 30 minute she was Lydia but then Siesa came in and changed her mind Elsie followed suit so the vote was in favor of Fay.  She has been Fay Pauline ever since.   

After some breakfast the kids all gave Fay her first bath.  Fay of course screamed the whole time then we pulled out some pink clothes and the girls have been fighting pretty much every day about what she should wear.  Apparently they not only have strong opinions about their own clothing but Fay’s as well.  

We sent the kids to school a little late but very happy to share the news.  My mom came and took Elsie for a few hours so Derek and I could get a little sleep.  Sunday afternoon Rebecca came to check on me and Fay she did the PKU and hearing lest which she passed.  So for 9 days I didn’t leave the house.  It has been great.  Derek is the best nurse a girl could want and has been so great cleaning and doing laundry and cooking.  We have had some meals brought so that has been fun for us all.  Derek took a few days off work but thanks to moms he has been able to get some work done too.  Fay has slept 5 hour stretches at night so I am not feeling too tired yet.   Hopefully the trend will continue.  

We took this family picture a few days before Fay was born.