and thanks to grandma, we're becoming quite proficient at belly dance... or at least, we look awfully cute and we have a ton of fun :)
this is the same day, but with a little more action:
a proud big sister:
cute little toes
with mama:
stretch!
the proud daddy, can you see the excitement and love in that face!
again, with daddy :)
here's malachi's first birthday party. grandma helped the girls make cupcakes and decorate them for chi's birthday party. he didn't get one though... go figure. the girls' stickers say "awesome BIG sister" and they are! they LOVE holding and kissing and helping their baby brother, they're both really sweet with him too, hopefully that will last :)
happy family! both girls wanted to hold the baby, and they both wanted daddy to help, so he did, aren't they cute!
and finally, ready to come home!
and i saved the end of the post for talking about the labor/delivery for whoever's interested, the rest of you saw the pics, so that's probably the most interesting part :).
i had a really easy labor and delivery, as far as those things go. i'm not sure exactly when i went into labor, though i did have a rather uncomfortable night. by about 6:15 i was awake and pretty sure it was labor, though it wasn't til about 10 minutes later (two more contractions) that i was confidant enough to admit it even to myself. the contractions were about every 5 minutes lasting about 40-60 seconds long, and it was still easy. round about 7:00 i woke paul up and told him we were having a baby (to which he responded first with complete terror, and then with an almost equal degree of excitement... i can't blame him, i had another hour to deal with the idea first :). we also called my mom about then and let her know we were having a baby today. she finished up what she needed to do at her house and joined us about 9am to watch the girls. we were still not in a rush. we left for the hospital a little later, and arrived about 9:50, i was still having contractions about every 5 minutes, and they were still fairly mild--unexciting. i seriously think though that that was at least 50% mind power because i was determined not to have the baby in the car :) we checked into the l/d triage at the hospital for admission, and by the time they'd checked my blood pressure/temp/etc and checked the baby's heartbeat, my contractions were suddenly about every 1-2 minutes and a LOT stronger. they admitted me dilated to an 8, though the nurse told me it was a 9 and she didn't want to scare anyone (like me, for example? no, actually, i wasn't surprised at all, and i knew i still had time, though not as much as some people might like... i do like it that way, i think she was mostly concerned for paul and the tech that brought me to the delivery room). anyways, i went straight to the delivery room and met the midwife, who i really liked. after three failed IV attempts (with three corresponding giant bruises on my arms), they finally gave up because i was ready to push. as far as i remember, i pushed three times (the first popped my water, in a lovely gush), the second put him into place, and the third pushed him entirely out! chi was born at 10:58 with a lusty cry, and started turning pink immediately, by the time they handed him to me (pretty directly), he was about done crying, and he looked really healthy and just a little cone-headed (which went back to normal within the first day). he was 7 lbs 6 ozs and 20.5 inches long. the nurses and midwife were really impressed with the cord, which was a little strange. evidentally it was the prettiest any of them had ever seen (i didn't realize there was that much variation among umbilical cords). we didn't get a picture. chi had a little trouble getting his temperature to stay up, but other than that the first day or two, he's been perfect (and he's also officially gained 8 ozs in the last 5 days).
