Heaven Sent

INTRODUCING........

Ruby Kay West

Arriving Monday March 28, 2011

8:08 AM

Weighing in at 6 lbs 6 oz and 19 1/2 in long

And for those of you who like Labor stories.............

It all started about 9 months ago... JUST KIDDING!

My due date was April 14th. Although I had it in my head that she would be born in March, March 30th to be exact. Mainly because I don't like being pregnant and wanted to be done sooner, but also because we have a lot of April birthdays and not so many March birthdays. Zack was also 2 weeks early so I was convinced that she would be too. Deep down I was sure I couldn't be so lucky.

I had a doctors apt on the 23rd and my doctor told me to pack my bags but make an apt for the following week just in case. He really didn't think I would make it to the following week though. This got me excited and I quickly started to try and put myself into labor. You could have found me doing some of the following things last week: wii fit aerobics, wii fit hula hoop (not recommended, it hurt!), touring homes in Day Break, shopping, THOUGHT about cleaning the carpets again, and any other kind of house work I could think of. None of these things were working. Or so I thought.

Sunday night we went to bed. I woke up for my normal 1:45 bathroom break and in a lot of pain. I didn't think much of it because I had experienced these same labor pains before and nothing happened. At 3:00 I decided to start timing them. I found a really cool website that times contractions and does all the work for you. All I had to do was click to start and stop. Which was nice because I was laboring all by myself. Since Kevin gets up so early I didn't want to wake him unless this was the real thing. As I watched they were fairly consistent, weird I thought.... I wonder what this means. Ha ha. I wanted to believe it, but I didn't want to get my hopes up and I definitely didn't want to go to the hospital and get sent home!

The contractions were fairly painful but I was managing. They were about 2 minutes apart lasting usually 45 seconds. I couldn't remember if that was a good thing or not. I woke Kevin up at 4:00. He asked if he should hurry and go deliver his papers (he has a paper route). I laughed, no, I think we need to go to the hospital. He called the newspaper and they were a little upset that he didn't give them more notice. Geez Ruby, why couldn't you have called ahead to tell us you were coming?! Are you kidding me, more notice? I don't think this woman has ever had a baby. There isn't a more unpredictable thing on the planet! And the fact that this was my second means they come and go even faster!

So the plan was for us to go to the hospital and get checked out and then call my mom to tell her to come over. We checked in and found that I was dilated to 6 1/2. WOW! OK Rachel, don't move, or breathe... Kevin sent my brother to pick up his papers and he brought them to the hospital so Kevin could leave as soon as I was nice and cozy with my epidural and he would be back in an hour. I got the epidural and we awkwardly explained to the nurses that my husband had to leave to do his paper route and he would try to be back before the baby was born. It was all very comical.

Kevin returned as promised in an hour. Luckily I was still hanging out and Ruby had decided to hold on for a bit. They had just discovered I was at a 9 and hoped that the doctor would show up soon. The doctor showed up and my water broke. He told the nurse to do a practice push with me and 3 big pushes later we had a baby.

I was teasing the doctor because Zack was born on a Monday morning at 8:02 AM, it was 7:50 and I told him I wanted them to be born at the same time, fully knowing it would be a while. I didn't think it would be that easy and Ruby was born at 8:08 AM.

Ruby is a VERY good baby, just like Zack was. She eats and sleeps, hardly ever cries and if she does it wears her out and she falls asleep after only a few seconds. She looks alot like Zack did. (will post picts of the 2 of them as newborns later) Ruby also makes alot of the same facial expressions that he did. I've heard also that she looks alot like I did when I was born but all my baby pictures are in the storage unit so I haven't been able to compare yet.

We sure are loving having this little girl around!