in love with a girl

minutes after her birth

so cute

her double chin is so much bigger now!!!

proud pop....tired mom

hopefully anyone who reads this has looked on my facebook profile to see pictures of our new precious angel face pumpkin head cutie pie. it has been difficult for me to update one website, let alone two, considering my arms are now filled with 8.2 lbs of cheeks just begging to be kissed repeatedly. i will say quickly that benson and i are doing well, that we are happier than we could have ever imagined. sibyl o'connor ward is a spirited little thing who hates to be undressed, changed, bathed or swaddled but quickly calms down the minute you are finished. she is quite the gassy lassie and the hardest part of our day is overcoming her poor little tummy problems. otherwise she seems to be a happy and content baby and is finally letting mom and dad sleep for 2-3 hour stretches at night. a small victory!

the dogs seem to really like her and constantly try to sniff and lick her. actually, let me take that back...buddy doesnt care about her at all...but merlin and sadie are already vying for the top spot in her heart. for anyone who has read the story of edgar sawtelle (highly recommend), i think we might have to christen sadie "almondine".

ok, i hear little stinkum stirring and have to run. she is so fun...and she likes all of the south pacific show tunes i sing to her, she likes sitting through 3 showings of jane eyre, and she doesnt startle when the dogs bark at the ups man...as long as i am holding her close. we are totally and completely smitten.

Sibby's Birth

I wrote this for our birth class days after she was born...I am not going to edit it for the blog...so here goes!

Benson and I wanted to let you know that on her due date, 1/11/11, Sibyl "Sibby" O'Connor joined the Ward family during the height of the ice storm! More details will follow (unless I go on for a while), but I will say that everything we thought might happen during labor went completely out the window when we had a precipitious labor. We had our bags packed to spend days laboring with all of the accoutrements we expected I would need to get through a long and grueling labor. Instead I spent Monday with what I thought was normal mid-back pain and mild Braxton Hicks (I had not had any during the pregnancy really and was not sure) and went to bed around 12:30 after the national championship game. At 12:55 my water broke and we contemplated putting off calling the doctor since I had no other symptoms. We called anyways and the answering service said they would send him a message. Within 30 minutes Benson was timing my contractions which (there were only a few we timed before getting in the car) jumped around from 8 to 6 to 4 minutes apart. Frustrated we had not heard from the doctor yet, Benson called the answering service again at 2:00, and was put through to a doc on call who said to come on in. Still thinking I had 24 hours ahead for me, I took a quick shower but realized I was in way too much pain and we got in the car at 2:35 to brave the treacherous road to Emory Midtown. Normally a 20 minute drive, it turned into an hour long ordeal because on Monday night the highway was still just a huge sheet of ice. I think I went into a bit of a zone, but I do remember starting to get nervous that my contractions seemed one on top of the other and that I was in intense pain during them. This was not aided by the fact that the ice made the roads very rough and I was having to hold myself off of the car seat from the rough ride and squeeze my legs together because i felt the "urge to poop" -- which in the back of my mind I knew meant that I was basically ready to push, but Benson said I just kept mentioning between contractions how bad I had to go number two. Of course, this was a white knuckle experience for him, poor thing, trying to control the car and timing my contractions which were between 3-1 minutes apart during the ride. I also went through a short transition in the car, which maybe lasted 1 contraction and was super intense. It is odd, because I was quite aware of everything that was going on and I had two voices in my head....one was that this can't really be intense labor yet b/c of the timing and that I am obviously not going to be able to handle actual labor, and another voice monitoring the reality of the situation and fearing a birth in the car and knowing this was it! We made it to Emory at 3:35 am. We couldn't even use any emergency or valet entrance b/c of the ice and I had to walk from visitor parking. While Bens was signing a thing or two I went to the women's restroom in the waiting room to sit on the toilet where a nurse quickly found me and told me I did not want to have this baby on a toilet! Walking to the Labor & Delivery area, we saw Dr. Tate and I felt instant relief. We still had not heard from him and I was worried he might not make it. He said that the girl from the answering service who didn't return our call might be out of work soon... We went into a room, they stripped me in seconds, and he checked me immediately. The nurses barely had time to take a blood sample and I definitely didn't have anything else poked (no IVs, etc.)! I didn't quite understand when he told the resident that I was fully dilated and plus two...but then he turned to me and told me that with my next contraction it is time to start pushing. Dr. Tate grabbed a leg and told Benson to grab the other. In no time, I was ready and began to push. I had four sets of three pushes and she was born! We arrived at Emory at 3:35 and she made her entrance into the world at 4:07. She could easily have been born in the car! I guess what stopped it was me holding my legs together and tensing up so much holding myself up off the seat. During those 4 sets I went through a range of emotions....I was in shock and denial during the first two. Luckily I had the hang of it from the beginning...After the second push Dr. Tate said he could see the head and Benson saw a bit of the hair and I guess I then realized I was really having a baby! After the third, the baby was at the "ring of fire" which was so painful and it seemed an eternity that she was just hanging out there while we were waiting for the fourth wave of contractions. It was so surreal when she was born and we found out our "it" was in fact a she. I had a second degree tear which has NOT been fun. The placenta was not coming down as Dr. Tate would have liked and they had to spend a bit of time on me pushing on top of my stomach and reaching in to help get it out. I barely noticed though -- my baby had been placed on me! Benson really didn't have time to put many of his Bradley skills into practice but he has become the most hands on dad I can imagine. In a way I feel like I lucked out with a fast labor, but at the same time it was a risky and nerve wrecking way to come. From the little bit I've read since Tuesday, it is quite rare to have a labor like that but it is deemed dangerous and has added risks -- you are more likely to tear and hemorrhage because your body doesn't really have time to respond to the labor; the contractions are obviously shorter but they are supposed to be more intense and painful. I wouldn't know b/c I have nothing to compare them to! I was definitely in shock and not really emotionally ready for the birth! We are just so happy to have her here and are so thankful to Cheryl and everyone for helping us prepare! Benson did not use many of the physical coaching skills, but mentally the classes helped us immensely (Benson says that my talk of having to poop during the drive to the hospital freaked him out, because he knew from all the stories in class that this symptom meant it was time to push. He did not want to deliver our baby by himself on a snowbank on the side of I-85.)! Mom, Dad and Sibby are all doing great. Pictures to come...Betsy, Benson and Sibby

due tomorrow?

my due date is tomorrow. not sure if i should be ready for the baby to be evicted or not! i am sure that the highways have been cleared of enough snow to be safe...but i am worried about it freezing over tonight with more sleet. my friend mebbie relayed her harrowing (to me at least and my pregnancy state of mind) story of having to leave her vehicle on the side of the highway last night in order to be rescued by a family friend. my luck usually consists of slightly mitigated worst-case scenarios and so i am envisioning a 2 am labor, getting stuck on I-85 and benson delivering the baby in the back seat...at least he earned his coach card through 40 hours of bradley classes!

the snow has been beautiful and i have really enjoyed having benson at home today. i havent been diligent in updating my blog recently because i have felt really awful. on wednesday my mid-back started killing me out of nowhere (it is slightly on the left side, if anyone with a medical degree has any suggestions!). it has been pretty unrelenting since then. I may have a few hours reprieve, but it has pretty much been my constant companion. the worst part is that it is so severe, that i really have had problems standing or doing anything. i didnt really want to spend the last week (or God help me, 15 days...) of my pregnancy lying on my side with a heating pad...but i guess it is almost over!

all this talk about due dates and the impending introduction of our little one has me a little bit nervous. i think we are ready...but honestly, can any first-timer really be ready? i feel like we are already starting out behind--we dont have names picked out! the shelves remain in their plastic wrappers! the diapers are not completely washed and prepped! we dont have the car seat installed!

please pray for us! pray that two nerdy kids will find the maturity to raise this baby :)

sick, sick, sick

just when i was beginning to pay myself on the back a little about this pregnancy, i started to slow down....and now i feel just plain awful. i started to slow down right before Christmas (37 weeks pregnant). water weight began to creep up and show itself on my swollen hands and feet. my big belly started to cause muscle and ligament pain in my belly...oh, and sleep became much more difficult! however, these were all minor discomforts and side effects that many girls experience throughout the entire third trimester! at least i know the end is near.

over christmas bens and his mom were really sick with yucky sinus stuff. we commented multiple times how lucky i was that it had not struck me! well, as of the last few days--count me stricken. i think i slept a total of 1.5 hours last night...maybe. i have so much gross drainage that it is impossible to lie down and fall asleep. my nose is constantly closing up and you have to breathe through your mouth which dries and hurts your throat. anyways, you know how it is. i am just crossing my fingers that i dont go into labor when i am sick like this. i need energy to pull off a natural birth! i have an appt with my GP today, but i am not sure what he will put me on since i am preggo. i have about a week left to be pregnant (unless i go super late!) and i dont want to spend it holed up in bed, blowing my nose, wishing i could sleep! there are still so many chores i need to do and the xmas decorations arent going to take down themselves!