Lovely Little Leila

She's finally here!!

Our new baby girl, Leila Jane Hurlburt, was born on April 4th, 2008, at about 1:45 in the morning. She weighed 7 pounds, 7 ounces, and was 20 inches long (so my biggest baby yet). I was a few days over-due when I had her, but when she decided to come she came FAST.

Not long after going to bed for the evening, I woke up with contractions. I tried to time them, but they were really close together so I figured it was another false alarm. Also, they seemed to vary between two and three minutes apart, so didn't know if they fit the hospital's criteria of "regular". I called the maternity ward to see if I should come in, but they recommended I take a warm bath and call them back.

I took the bath but continued having contractions. So I walked around the house for awhile and debated whether or not to wake Mikey and Emma up on a school night, and whether or not to let Jon bother Phil and Jill with a late night phone call to watch the kids.

Sometime around midnight it became clear to me that I might actually be having a baby. Jon woke the kids up and had them started packing overnight bags, and I started to realize how seriously uncomfortable I was. Their packing took forever, and the drive from Colfax became excruciating. Jon didn't realize how bad things were becoming because I was trying to conceal my suffering from the kids, so as not to traumatize them. I was really quiet in the car. Jon wondered if we should drop the kids off at Phil and Jill's BEFORE going to the hospital. I told him that I would like to be dropped off first (inwardly screaming "??!!!??").

So Jon got me situated in a hospital room and left to drop off the kids. The nurse checked me and I was already dilated to 10 and baby's head was coming. Within 15 minutes of checking into the hospital, Leila Jane was born. Jon walked back into the room and made a little joke about "Is she here yet?" only to shockingly see her already laying on top of my stomach. He was able to help cut the cord, though.

Definitely a more dramatic childbirth story than I had with the other two. And definitely a "grand finale" as far as my childbirth experiences go!

I felt pretty good afterwards, so was able to come home on Saturday rather than Sunday. With about two hours to spare, we were home in time to greet my parents, sister, and three of my brothers, who had planned in advance to come see us that day. One sibling, of course, was brother Don from Arkansas, who only had a small window of time to come to Eau Claire for the visit. So we were glad the baby was able to oblige his tight itinerary!

Everyone got to hold Leila and pose for the obligatory Photo With Baby. Jonathan arrived about the same time, to meet this newest sister, 24 years younger than him! He also had to give lap time to the previous holder of the title "baby girl", his diva-sister Emma. (By the way: yesterday and today were declared "Love Emma Up Day" on our calendar by Emma, lest anyone forget).

It's impossible to tell whether Leila's going to resemble anyone else in the family yet. So far she seems to have her own look. Her hair is a lighter brown than Emma's was, with a tendency to spike. She has a sweet, sleepy disposition (so far), and stretches and coos a lot. She wakes up at least three times in the night to be fed, but lets me get a few hours sleep in between, which I appreciate.

We're still trying to get settled into the new routine here. It takes awhile to adjust to a new family member, but Michael and Emma are doing a great job with the change. They've had a lot adjustments to make, lately-- a new house, a new school, and a new baby. So every now and then we hit a sad moment or a conflict. But luckily Jon has been around lots lately to parent with me-- it's a nice change, after several years of him being gone most of the week. Him and Michael spent a lot of time together watching basketball's March Madness (which Michael has really been into, though he always roots for whatever team's wearing the white jerseys). And Jon and Emma have been able to start doing lawn work together.

A lot of our snow's melted, though it can be deep in patches. We can now see that no one did yard work last fall, so Jon's started raking areas where the snow's gone. It's so interesting to see things as they emerge from their wintery cover. There are some little brick paths around the back of the house, and flower beds with "mystery" sprouts shooting up.

I'll post more photos of our visits with various friends and family in later entries. Thanks, everyone, for your support and goodwill during what felt like a 12-month pregnancy.

Best wishes, and come see us soon!