Molly pictures

Here's a huge batch of pictures from the day Molly was born...

(The best shot of what Molly looks like now- after the birth swelling has gone down- is the ones where Brock and Scott are holding her- I'll try and get better pictures of her later today...)

OK- this first one is possibly my favorite picture of all time! This is the moment when Molly popped out faster than we thought possible and Dan was holding my hand so tight and telling me it was a girl which was kinda surprising since we both kinda thought it was going to be a boy. But the joy on Dan's face is just awesome to me- he was so happy! In the full picture you can see Molly at the bottom but you can also almost see my crotch so it got cropped for the blog. :)

The kids are just smitten! The boys just want to hold her non-stop!

This is my other favorite picture of that day. Kara is doing the signature older sibling kung-fu grip on the new baby and Dan's trying to save the baby but at the same time Kara just wants to give her a kiss (if you look close you can see she's puckering up) but she's looking at Dan like- Just let me kiss her OK? I love it!

Left to right- my dad- my siblings, Cortney, Chris, Kimmy.

My supremely amazing mother! This woman is my hero. She was constantly trying to help me get the nurses when things got off during labor, she took most of these amazing pictures, she took the kids to Vegas for the weekend to give me a break, she's just AMAZING and I am so grateful for a mom and dad who are so awesome! It was so fun to have them there at the hospital when Molly was born. And it's been heaven to recover at home with peace and quiet. THANKS guys!

Oh and for those interested- here's the super long story of her birth. We got to the hospital at 6:30 am for our induction. I guess it had gotten busier then they expected and cancelled the 2 inductions right after us- so we were lucky to get to stay. Anyways- they got us set up pretty quick.

Now I have always had this crazy insane desire to try to go natural with a birth- but have always had to have pitocin. So I had them start the pit on low hoping that the dr. could break my water shortly and I could maybe turn off the pit and have the baby on my own. No such luck- somehow breaking my water always stops my labor. So at 7 the pit started at a 2. I was dialated to around 4cm and 70% effaced and the baby was floating high still. At 9 they broke my water and I was still 4cm.

After all contractions stopping, at 10 I ordered the epidural knowing how much the pit rocks my world. It was a weird epidural for me- it completely numbed my whole right side from the waist down- I couldn't even lift my leg. But my left side was almost totally un-numb- I could feel my leg and belly and move my leg fine. But I couldn't feel my contractions or any pain in my crotch anywhere (I knew that from when they did the catheter). It was perfect I guess for the left side and what they shoot for.

At the same time as the epi, I also had them start cranking up the pit I was maybe 5cm at this point- baby was still floating high. They can only up it so much per 1/2 hour so it was 12:30 when they pushed it all the way full at 20. But within minutes of the nurse leaving my contractions started getting less intense. (I can always feel the intensity of the contraction but not any pain with my epidurals). I kept changing positions trying to get the pit to kick in again but it wasn't working.

So at 1:30 I called the nurse back in (but my nurse was busy so another nurse came in) she checked me and I was still maybe 5cm. I told her the pit had stopped working- she told me she didn't think I could tell really because of my epidural. She kinda glanced over my pit line and she left. I was pissed. I knew the pit wasn't working so I kept trying to change positions to see if that would help. A little after 2 I had my mom go find the nurse again and ask her to maybe call my dr. because something was wrong with the pit not working on me. She checked me to see if anything had changed (I think she thought I was crazy and that she could tell me if my cervix was changing that I was wrong) but I was still 5 cm with baby still floating. And so she double checked my pitocin iv and sure enough somewhere up the line it had come unhooked and was just dumping the pit on the floor! I was so bugged! I felt like I had wasted 2 hours just sitting there! Ugh- I'm so not patient.

Anyways- that was about 2:30 that she hooked back up the pit still at full power. Within 10 min I could feel the good contractions starting up again. And another 10 min later I could feel lots of pressure with each contraction in my rear. I told my mom and she ran and told the nurse. The baby's heart rate kept going off the monitor I guess so 2 nurses ran in- they checked me and I was 9 1/2 cm and fully effaced and the baby was fully engaged and moving down with each contraction. (20 min after getting the pit back in!!) They strapped a oxygen mask on me and kept stressing over finding the baby's heart rate and making sure it was lowering with the contractions, not after or something. (They were worried it was in distress) And called my dr. and told me not to push. At this point, the epidural had worn off slightly and so they pushed the button a bunch of times and called the epidural guy- but by the time he got there I was numbed up again and good.

But the pressure from the contractions was insane in my rear- I totally felt like I was going to poo all over the table with each contraction and the urge to push was getting really strong. So they turned off the pit so we could wait till the dr. got there. After a few min the pressure wasn't so bad since the contractions had chilled slightly without the pit. The baby was also doing way better without the pit. The dr. got there a little after 3 and they got me all set up. He had me do a little practice push at like 3:07 and I guess the babies head totally crowned up to the brow! The baby was also sunny side up up till this point which was why it was putting so much pressure on my rear. But with that first push the baby flipped itself right around to the right direction on it's own. The dr. was shocked. He had me push one more time and her whole head was out. The cord was wrapped around it's neck once loosely and he suctioned the nose and mouth and one more little push and out came the baby at 3:09pm! Dan was the one to announce to me that it was a girl! We were both kinda surprised since we had both kinda guessed that it was a boy- but I think we both wanted a girl to even out the family. We were both beyond shocked at how fast it all went from a 5 and unengaged to birth- it wasn't even 40 min. I had a little stage 1 tear along my old scar.

They took her straight over to the warmer and they had a respiratory guy there since she was having distress during the labor. They had to stick a little tube down her throat to get out a ton of fluid she had inhaled- Dan said they got a massive syringe full. But she was wailing pretty good after that but grunting a little. So they watched her and cleaned her up for another few minutes and she kept getting better and better and then they turned her over to Dan and said she was fine. Her apgars were 8 and 9 so really really good. Anyways- I got to hold her at that point.

She has super short hair (the boys call her bald) and it's really dark blond or really light brown hair. I think it's by FAR the shortest hair we've had on a baby and the lightest. I think she looks like a mix of Kara and Scott. She's got Kara's nose but more of Scott's shaped head and eyes. She's the biggest by an ounce and an inch- (7 lbs 4 oz and 20 inches long). She has really long feet- especially for our children. So far she is SUPER chill. A great nurser, a great sleeper (4-5 hour stretches at night!) and she just chills and naps great during the day. We are so smitten and just in heaven.

So there is the incredibly long story of Molly Jo's birth.

(Oh- her middle name Jo is a tribute to her 2 amazing grandma's. My mom- JoAnn and Dan's mom Joan. (They both start with Jo).