Beautiful Girls!

It sure is nice to be home! Around here the typical stay in the hospital is 48 hours. Way too long for me! Honestly, how are you supposed to rest when they come in your room every 20 minutes at night to do dumb things like take out your garbage? I decided I'd rest better at home, even with a toddler! So, I got permission to leave after 24 hours. (okay, technically it was 28)

Emmallynne was glad to meet her new sister. She doesn't quite grasp the idea of "holding" her; she does much better at "smoothering." It's adorable. It's been a few days, and Emmalynne still loves her. She likes to bring her blankets. Her favorite is to bring diapers and wipes in excess. A couple nights ago Carman was trying to put Em to bed and she was crying about it (which is VERY infrequent) Clara and I were just in the other room and Clara was crying about having her diaper changed. When I was done I traded kids w/Carman. I held Em for a minute and tried telling her "ny-night." She kept crying and then finally mustered out the word "baby." (who was still crying) So I called Carman and Clara in. We all sat on the bed together while Em held Clara. Everybody stopped crying and after about 5 mintues Em was ready to go to bed. She just wanted to say good night to her sister!

I'm Not Pregnant!

Clara Deanna Ragatz

born Dec 14, 2009 at 7:12 am

7 lbs 9 oz

20 in

She finally made it! I had a dr. apt last Friday and decided to schedule to be induced on Monday (12/14) at 7 am. I guess the deadline was all she needed! I woke up at 1:30 Monday morning with contractions. I was afraid of going to the hospital, not being in real labor, and getting sent home. I woke Carman up at 2 because I couldn't sleep anymore. The contractions were about 5 minutes apart, but some were 3 min, some were 7 min. Carman was anxious so we called my dr. office around 2:30, they told us to wait it out at home for awhile until the contractions were longer and more consistent. We put a movie in and I walked around the front room until at 4:30 the contractions had been 4 min apart and 45 seconds long for nearly an hour. My sister came over to be with Emmalynne and Carman and I got to the hospital at 5:30. My dr. office had called to tell them I was on my way in but I had to laugh when we got to the front desk and the nurse asked if we were the 7:00 induction. I said we were, she told another nurse we were there and the other nurse said, "why?" (she just thought we were an hour and a half early to be induced!)

They did the standard procedure of hooking me up to all the fun machines to make sure I was really in labor. I had to be hooked up to those for 30 minutes before they'd do anything else. I'm pretty sure we were there for a total of 10 minutes by the time I told them I wanted an epidural. After they did some paper work the nurse checked me and I was dialated to a 4. (not much considering I'd been a 3 for a week and a half) The nurse seemed to take her time casually getting stuff done. I go to a ob that has 6 drs working together, so they called the on call doc, who told them to give me 500 cc of fluid before the epidural. 30 minutes, 3 nurses, and 4 needle stickes later, they finally got the IV hooked up. I think that was around 6:30-6:45. It was going to take 30 min for enough fluid to drain. You see where I'm going, right? At 7 I told the nurse I was feeling a lot of pressure. She checked me again and said, with big eyes, "oh... you're fully efaced and an 8 now... you're progressing very quickly..." Then everybody seemed to be moving around much quicker and saying things like "tell her dr. she's an 8 and its her second baby." It didn't take long and I was telling them I felt like I needed to push. They called my on call dr but apparently he was going to be taking too long. The drs happened to be inbetween shift changing so they called the one that was just getting off. She was going to be taking too long also. So, the next best thing was to walk in the hall and grab the first dr. they saw.

Then it was like the movies. He came in, two nurses held out a gown for him, as he put his arms through the arm wholes he told me to go ahead and push on my next contraction, I did, and she was out! It was amazing. I feel like part of an elite club of crazy strong women that give birth w/o pain medication. Now that's worth writing on a resume! It would have been better if I were mentally prepared for it. However, all things considered, it really wasn't as bad as I had imagined. It certainly has its pros. As for getting an epidural or not in the future, I have no idea!

Random side note regarding the dr that delivered Clara, my brother Brian asked if the nurses walked into the hall, told the first guy they saw to drop his mop and put on a white jacket because they had a quick job for him to do...

Thanks for all of the baby name suggestions! Carman finally settled on her name about 1pm. He actually liked the name Clara back when I was pregnant with Emmalynne so I wasn't too surprised he picked it. It was also a suggestion from my sister, who claims we named Clara after her since it has "lara" in it. Deanna was one of Carman's Grandma's middle names (She had 2, or maybe 3). And now we have two beautiful little girls. I'm excited for them to meet!

Learning to Talk

Emmalynne is the best jibber-jabberer there is. She says real words, too, but mostly just babbles. This morning we had a funny little moment:

Me: Hehehehe
Carman: Are you laughing at me?
Me: No, I was just watching Emmalynne run in circles with my keys and dragging my purse.
Emmalynne: I'm a giiirrrrlllll!

Of course, she was just babbling but Carman and I heard the same thing. It was hilarious.

Dilema

Thanks for all the baby name suggestions. I sent them all to Carman and, as expected, he compiled a list consisting of his favorites. He won't tell me what's on the list though. You'll have to be just as curious as I am.

The new question is whether or not I should be induced. My doctor already said he'd induce me if I wanted to. Here are the pros and cons I've come up with:

Pros-I'll have the baby. Carman has saved 8.5 days of PTO just for the birth and if he begins his vacation this Friday, followed by Christmas break, and he won't have to go back to work until Jan. The baby's birthday won't be too close to Christmas. The baby wont' keep getting bigger and bigger in my womb, which will lessen the chances of having a 10 lb baby. *ouch

Cons-They say its easier for the mom and the baby if you're not induced. I'll have 2 kids and still not know what it's like to start having contractions or have your water break and get all excited and go to the hospital.

So, I want the baby to come on her own. As long as she doesn't take forever... If I get induced I'm leaning towards either doing it this Friday (one week late) or the following Monday (a week and a half). Then Carman would get to take his time off and I'd feel like I gave her a fair chance to come on her own... Any thoughts?

Hopefully this post will jinx me and I'll go into labor tonight!

No Name

Well, today's the day. I'm officially due and soon I'll be officially overdue! Its not too stressful yet. Like previously stated, I'm hoping she'll be born Sunday, the 6th. However, I guess because I was induced (9 days early) with Emmalynne I feel like the baby's never going to be born UNLESS I'm induced. Weird.

Now, on another note, I pretty much single-handedly chose Emmalynne's awesome name. I wanted Carman to have the opportunity to get more than his fair share of name picking this time around and, therefore, put him in charge of naming the baby. Thus, here it is, my due date, and he doesn't have a name picked out yet. The quote-unquote "list" he has consists of a few names people have suggested that he likes, and a few others he must have come up with on his own. But, I thought I'd give everybody the opportunity to influence his decision by giving any name suggestions you might have. I'll forward them all on to him, and viola! She's bound to have a name before we leave the hospital...