It seems it's been almost an entire year since I last blogged. The day to day life seemed to take over and the extra time of blogging was put aside...not that there was a lot of blogging in the year prior to that either.
The end of 2014 brought us another precious gift...a little girl. Making that a total of 5 little ones here for the Neatons.
Introducing...
Frankie Grace
She was born on New Year's Eve (12/31/14) at 8:45 pm. She weighed in at 8 lbs 9 oz and was 23 1/4 inches long.
**Birth story at the end, after the photos
Minutes old
About to get weighed...probably about 90 minutes old
Weighed - 8 lbs 9 oz
Big sister Cori
With big brother Joseph
Big sister Charlie
Just like with my pregnancy with Arthur, I was 'overdue' this time around too. My due date was technically December 15th. But you know babies come when they are ready not necessarily when you are ready.
Pregnancy was going well. I was gaining appropriate weight, my blood pressure was good, baby's heart beat was good and she was plenty active in the womb. I had had a conversation with my midwives earlier in the week and we had decided that an ultrasound would be appropriate by the end of the week if I hadn't delivered yet.
At 16 days past my due date (12/31/14), my midwife, Kim texted to remind me to schedule the ultrasound. We talked back and forth about what to do to get labor going at this point and I decided on giving castor oil a try.
Around 2 pm I took the castor oil and went about my day....I was working in the office that day and the kids were upstairs with the sitter. Contractions came and went for awhile. By about 3:30, I knew I was in labor. I took the babysitter home, told Joe I was in labor and texted my midwives back with an update. They decided they would head out this way.
I called Joe's mom to come and picked up the kids for the night. We had a little conversation back and forth about whether it could wait until after they went to dinner, etc. In the end, she came and picked the kids up instead and they were out of the house by about 6:00 pm. Our midwives, Kim, Jane and Rachel got her about 6:30 pm. I was in active labor at this point and was having horrible back labor...which is very typical for me. What I love about our midwives is there is very little intervention/checking, etc that occurs unless I want it. So, they just check baby's heartbeat and my blood pressure and let me labor as I wanted. I showered and headed to the couch to try and find a better position for contractions...no real luck.
Joe was napping on the couch at this point and I had to actually wake him up to go get me a heating pad for my back...I'm guessing it was about 8:15-8:30 pm. Jane came down with a heating pad for my back and I worked through some more contractions but it was very sudden that I knew I needed to push. It was quick...which is awesome if you ask me. I pushed through about 3 contractions...starting at 8:41 and baby girl was born at 8:45.
One of the sweetest things heard that night...my hubby telling me that I make labor and delivery look easy and a midwife telling me that I'm good at birthing babies.
She was wrapped up in cord and Jane did a quick untangle job to free her and she was in mama's arms. At that point, both midwives commented that she didn't look like an overdue baby. She was covered in tons of vernix (the white cheesy stuff on her skin) yet and typically the longer a little one is in the womb the less of the vernix they have at delivery. We figured, I must have had the due date wrong...which easily could have been the case this time around.
...but when I delivered the placenta and they were checking it over and the placenta clearly indicated a 42 week pregnancy. So, in typically Neaton fashion....a contradiction all around.
Little girl nursed, then we clamped the cord and then she was weighed and checked over and dressed.
One of the best parts of having a home birth, midwives who feed you, do your dishes and laundry and hang around for a few hours to make sure everyone is settled in and postpartum visits in your own home.
Sweet Frankie is already 5 weeks old and the time goes so fast. It seems like she has been here forever and not all at the same time. She is overly loved by all here.
God bless!
