naomi comes home

Naomi turned 4 days old this morning, and we came home from the hospital today. We were at Northwestern's new Prentice Women's Hospital, which opened up just this past fall. Nice digs. I liked the fact that they had private recovery rooms as compared to the small one before with just curtains separating all the patients and babies. And the rooms were nice, too...42 inch plasma screen TVs in all the rooms, complete with cable, movies, internet, and games. I liked that you could order meals when you wanted to eat, instead of having a tray of food dropped off when they wanted to you eat. And I lucked out with a lot of nice nurses--they make a huge difference on the experience that you have.

Not having to labor this time and having my c-section scheduled made a huge difference on my whole experience. Not that the past two were necessarily bad, but not having to labor for 16 and 12 hours, respectively, before having c-sections made me appreciate the planned one that much more. And I was glad that Naomi decided to wait instead of coming earlier like Nicholas and Sophia. I was a lot more aware of what was going on in the operating room and afterwards. For example, I always got nauseous and threw up in recovery from the anesthesia, so this time, I made sure that they gave me a little Zofran along the way to keep me from getting sick. I also became a lot more cognizant this time of the fact that a c-section is not a delicate process--I mean, they literally push this baby out of a 4 inch incision--there is a lot of tugging and pulling involved.

I have to admit that the idea of having 3 children has not quite caught up with me yet. I mean, fundamentally, life is VERY different. But at the same time, having two other children at home means that life continues much in the way it did before. Anyway, at the end of the day, I did end up with another completely adorable little being with chubby cheeks like her siblings and who confirms for me, in my now brief moments of lucidity, that the weeks of swollen legs and being uncomfortable and even the delivery process itself is absolutely worth the result.

naomi olivia

We have officially become a family of five. Naomi Olivia arrived this morning at 11:05 a.m., weighing in at 7 pounds, 15 ounces and measuring 20 1/2 inches long. She was a good girl and waited until her scheduled date to join us. She's got a strong set of lungs (read, loud) and she is a good mix of what her big brother and sister looked like at birth. And she's got a thick, thick head of black hair...but you'll see that as soon as we post some pictures of her. So far, almost 12 hours old, she is a champ at eating, sleeping, and pooping. Nicholas and Sophia stopped by this afternoon to meet her and while both thought she was pretty cute and small, Sophia took her role as the big sister very seriously, asking, "when is it time for her to eat?", "when will you put her down in her crib?" and "is she pooping?" And she just wanted to hold her. It was very sweet. A good birthday--in fact, while at home with my mom, my sister-in-law Melanie, and their cousins, the kids baked a birthday cake for Naomi and enjoyed it for their dessert tonight.

And because no delivery of mine is complete without the cafeteria lady hair net picture, I leave you this:

the countdown

I am finally at the point where I just wait...half hoping that the baby will come NOW and half hoping that she will wait until her scheduled date. But after two weeks of nesting like a madwoman, I felt relaxed enough to sit and hemstitch a blanket for the baby. It took about 2 weeks for my hemstitcher to finally get fixed. It totally petered out after I made two blankets and a burp cloth for Emma about 6 months ago. It's such a tempermental machine.

My mom flew in yesterday afternoon and she'll be with us for 3 weeks, and then my dad will drive up and stay with us for another week before they take off. It seems like a long time, but I'm sure once the baby is here, the days will run together endlessly and go really fast.

baby names

Throughout this pregnancy, we had occasionally asked Nicholas and Sophia what we should name the baby. Both of them usually run through the list of their friends' names and in the end, we decide that no one is moved by any of them and the discussion is tabled for another day.

Last year, Sophia received the book Olivia from her little friend Symmes. She read it for a while, then we moved on to other books for a while. Then a few weeks ago, she picked up the book again and wanted to read it over and over at bedtime. And the next time our discussion about naming the baby came up, she decided that her baby sister's name was Olivia (although when she says it, it sounds more like "Oh-lee-ya"). Olivia was actually a name that we had considered for Sophia (along with Naomi, Natalie, Clara, Claire, Anne, Lindsey, Malia, Alyssa...you can come up with a lot of names when you labor for 12+ hours). In Sophia's mind, the fact that her baby sister's name now MUST be Olivia is based on the simple fact that she told 3 people in the Singles Branch at church that that was what her sister's name was going to be. We like the name Olivia, and up until about three days ago, we decided (among other reasons) to name the baby Olivia because neither one of us wanted to be the one to have tell Sophia that we had named her sister something else. But then again, we feel pretty strongly about naming our kids after we actually see them. After all, Sophia was almost Naomi Alyssa and Nicholas became a Nicholas only after we saw him and realized that he looked like a Nicholas and nothing like any of the other names we had taken to the hospital with us (like Benjamin or Andrew and a couple of others). His middle name Allan is the same as Greg's...funky spelling and all.

My sister pointed out that if we name our baby Olivia, we would be naming her after a pig. My dad seems to be a bit bothered by that idea, too, when we were talking about it other other night. Anyway, I guess we'll just have to wait and see what she looks like.

Maybe she'll come home as Ethel or Bernice or something. Or not.

thursdays suck

Since I went to working 4 days this year, nothing good has come out of it (well, except for the extra money, of course). But really, it has thrown my life off completely--my weekends just seem a lot crazier and work has also been a bigger pain in the butt. And since I fly solo on Sundays with Greg at church all day, I find myself more tired on Sundays than I do on Thursdays at the end of my work week. But the last couple of Thursdays have confirmed that no good comes on Thursdays. Let me explain.


Last Thursday - I went to see my OB for a regular checkup. Everything was fine as usual but as I was leaving, I pulled up my pant legs and showed my doctor my ankles. For a couple of weeks, my legs were swelling up, especially around my ankles, except that my right side was significantly bigger than my left. Yes, if swollen legs and ankles weren't totally sexy on their own, they are even sexier when they are lopsided. I know you're all dying to see a picture of them. Well, those are pictures that will never be taken. Here's the conversation that followed:

Doctor: "Wow, those are kind of lopsided."
Me: "Yes, aren't they? They look retarded."
D: "Do they hurt?"
M: "Yes, kind of."
D: "Are they always uneven like this? Is the right side always bigger?" (as she pokes them and my ankles stay dimpled, much like how bread dough stays dimpled after a good rising when you poke it...)
M: "Yes."
D: "Well, I'm going to call over to the hospital and see if they can take you right now for an ultrasound of your legs. I want to make sure that you don't have a blood clot."
M: "A blood clot? Really? Hey, isn't that serious?"
D: "Um, yeah, which is why I want you to go over now and you won't leave the hospital until they page me and everything is ok."
M: "Hey, aren't blood clots in legs the thing that kills people without much notice? Like that reporter from NBC?"
D: "Yeah. We wouldn't want you to have a heart attack or a stroke or anything."
M: "Oh."


Anyway, the good thing is that it was not a blood clot, but that the baby was just sitting one my right side (which she has been favoring for quite some time) and thus causing the "assymetrical swelling." Just as long as there is a semi-medical term for my lopsided cankles, right? At least I know I won't drop dead walking down the street or anything.


Today -- I go into work, only to find out that a big part of my maternity leave is being denied. I actually found out on Tuesday, but had since gotten more information to make me think that it was all going to be resolved in my favor and quickly. Apparently not. Never mind that this is my THIRD maternity leave and that I have never had any problems before. Basically, the problem is that they are refusing to pay me for holidays while I am on leave, which has never been denied before--not to me or anyone else. But this time, they decided that they were going to deny it because they have the "discretion" to do so. The funny part of it is that they also admit that there is nothing that prohibits me from getting paid for holidays as long as I meet certain requirements, which I do. My director refuses to get involved because he said he didn't make the decision. He can be incredibly frustrating when it comes to administrative issues...he just doesn't get that it's part of his job. And my office's contact at our headquarters in Washington, DC, who actually denied it, refuses to talk to me about either. It took every ounce of restraint I had not to just tell them it was my last day. Anyway, I'm in the process of trying to get it worked out. It will be interesting to see how it all shakes out, since there are a number of other pregnant women in the office. My office is in the middle of a big baby boom right now. It was a good thing there is a lot planned for this weekend. I just need to get my mind off of work.