MAY 25, 2010

So I was sitting down last Monday, talking to my sister-in-law, when all of a sudden I had to run to the bathroom... thinking maybe I had lost bladder control??? I didn't tell her what was going on (sorry, Libby) because who wants to tell someone they can't control themselves?! Anyway, this kept happening so I called my midwife and Dave (who was at the hospital), who brought home litmus paper to see if I was leaking amniotic fluid. (I was really hoping I was because how can I go 1 1/2 more weeks without being able to control myself!) Anyway, my water had definitely broken and we knew we'd be having a baby!

So my mom and Lainie got in the car and drove through the night... sorry girls! And our good family friend, Janet, drove down from Emerald Isle to watch Ben and Maaike Monday night into Tuesday.

My water broke at 3 on Monday and by 9 the next morning (they gave me 18 hours to go into labor on my own) nothing was really happening. So they started me on pitocin (had a horrible experience with pitocin with Ben but it worked beautifully in this case!) At just before 2 on Tuesday, I was only dilated 5 cm. so the midwife helped break my water further and the intense contractions came on instantly! Alexis was born about 50 minutes later!

Dave and I before anything really started...

Then things go intense...
... and Lainie and my mom decided to play in the tub! (I couldn't use it because I was getting pitocin.) Really, they didn't do this until after I delivered!

Alexis Lainie Shaw was born at 2:48 and weighed 7 lb. 1 oz. She was 19 inches long. She was 12 days early, which is why she's so much smaller than the other 2 were.

Lainie and her niece, Alexis Lainie!

A happy Joon Joon welcoming her 3rd grandchild into the world!

A proud Daddy with his second baby girl!

A cute little hat knit by volunteers at the hospital.