She's here! On Friday January 25th, 2013 Flory Lee Murphy was born. She is such a tiny, precious little thing and we are blessed beyond words to have her as a part of our family. This time labor was not only very different, but MUCH quicker than with Liam. I am still in shock at how quickly everything happened. Thursday day I started in with some braxton hicks that became more and more consistent and quickly started turning into labor contractions. They really weren't that painful so I wasn't sure how real it was until I finally started timing them and realized they were only about 5-7 minutes apart. After a couple hours I called the Dr who said to give it a couple more hours to see if they picked up and/or got more intense. At this point it was 10PM, so I decided to take a bath and then try and get some sleep. Needless to say I hardly slept as I continued to have them, yet they did not get any closer or stronger. Because I wasn't in serious pain, I decided to wait to call the Dr back. Finally at 6AM, after an entire night of contracting, I called them back. They told me to go ahead and come on in since I had been going for so long and they would check me and at the very least try and help me get some sleep. Josh and I immediately got up and showered and called his parents to come over to watch Liam. By 7:30 we got in the car to head to the hospital and at that point, there was NO doubt I was in labor. With all that activity, my contractions has picked up to the point where I couldn't talk through them. They were still NO where near as painful as they were with Liam, however, so that was a good thing. After checking in to the hospital and getting settled, the midwife came in and checked me and I was dilated to a 4. There was no doubt we were having a baby that day..wahoo! It still took another 2 hours or so to finish all my paperwork, get my enema, etc. before I finally got the epidural. By that time my contractions were excruciating and I was beyond thrilled to feel that numbing medicine of the epidural race through my veins. Instant gratification. From that point on I labored peacefully for another couple of hours. They came to check me around 11:30 and I was still a 4, and there was meconium in my water, so they were a little concerned that Flory was under stress for some reason. They decided to give me another hour and then see where I was and talk about where to go from there. Well, not only 45 minutes later I felt intense pressure and I called the nurse who checked me and said, "yep, there's the head"! I could NOT believe it. In 45 minutes I went from a 4 to a 10 and she was crowning! They immediately prepped the room, I pushed for 10 minutes through 4 contractions and out she came. It was unreal how much easier it was. Don't get me wrong, it still hurt like crazy, but because it was so quick it didn't even phase me! After pushing an hour and a half with Liam, this was a breeze!
We are starting week 2 at home with Flory. So far, she has been great. Much easier than Liam at this point (knock on wood). She breastfeeds great, sleeps, pees and poops. After being used to Liam only taking 1 two hour nap a day, it amazes me how much she sleeps! I can't get over all the free time I have during her naps. Liam is still in school during the week, so it has been very nice to be able to rest and recover while he is happily playing at school. She is also doing great at night. She is going about 4 hours in between feedings, and goes right down afterwards in her bassinet. I really can't complain!!
Speaking of Liam, he has been adjusting well. He asks about "baby Forwee" a lot and has been a big help, but mostly he just sticks to his own things for now. I think when she is much bigger and able to play with him, he is really going to enjoy her. We have had one trying night, when he was up ALL night long coughing/congested and crying. Tending to him in between feeding Flory every couple of hours was tough. I think Josh and I got a total of 2-3 hours of sleep that night. But, as tough as it was, we managed and made it through. Hopefully those nights will be few and far between and we will tackle them as they come.
