Cute Capri

Welcome Capri - Part 2

Please scroll down if you haven't read part 1 yet!

...Capri calmed down and nursed. Then, we gathered in the bathroom and I relaxed in a herbal bath while Kellie examined our baby. Yes, that is the placenta sitting in a bag next to Capri...


Wayne cut the cord and Spencer counted her fingers. Then Capri got in the herbal bath with me and absolutely loved it! She was so relaxed...



Capri did the most perfect thing she could have done for her brothers... she farted. Little bubbles came up out of the water and her brothers burst into laughter.



Wayne got our baby girl dressed while Kellie helped me out of the tub. Spencer held Capri...


... and shielded her eyes from the bright lights while she peaked at him...


She was a little jaundiced so we gave her a sun bath...


This plant blossoms once a year right outside our front door. It blossomed the day she was born...

What a beautiful way to welcome Capri to our home!

Welcome Capri - Part 1

If you haven't read the post before this one, please scroll down and read it first. I want this post to be all about Capri's birth and not about the location of her birth.

On March 11, 2011, I went to the grocery store at about 8am, after I got all of my boys off to school. I was having contractions while I was at the store but I thought they were just Braxton Hicks. These contractions were stronger and more frequent but I still thought that they would go away. I finished shopping, stopped twice to say hi to friends at the store, headed home, even stopped at a couple of garage sales, and was putting the groceries away before I finally decided that maybe I should time my contractions. I couldn’t figure it out though because some were strong, some were weak, and they were really close together. So I called my mom and asked her to come over and help me figure out if I was in labor. Right after that, my sister, Kelly, called and I told her what was going on. She listened to me get through a contraction, laughed, and said, “You are in labor!”

I have the opposite of false alarms. I never believe that I am labor until someone convinces me of it. I was sure that I would know this time but I guess my brain turns off. After talking to Kelly, I was convinced enough to call Wayne at work at about 10:30am. He takes the park and ride downtown to work and he had just missed the last bus that would bring him back home. It was going to be almost an hour before another bus came along. I told him that was okay because I might not really be in labor. He told me later that I had three contractions in the short time that we were on the phone. I called my midwife, Kellie, and she said that she was going to come check me out. She was about an hour away. My mom arrived, timed my contractions, and said they were about two minutes apart but only 15 seconds long. She called Wayne and told him to skip the bus, get a taxi, and get home fast. She left to go pick up Andrew and Spencer from school. I called Troy and asked him to pick up Trinton from school.

So there I was alone at home and in labor and all I wanted to do was clean house! My midwife called to check in on me when she was on the way. She listened to me get through a contraction and then she asked me to lie down to slow down my labor. I tried to convince myself to lie down. I told myself that if I didn’t lie down, then I might deliver our baby before anyone got there. I didn’t believe myself. I kept cleaning!

One by one, everyone arrived. Wayne and Andrew got to work getting the hot tub ready. Everyone else followed me around the house and did whatever I asked them to do… move this here, put that there… I was still cleaning house! I stopped every couple of minutes to get through a contraction. Kellie knelt next to me and listened to our baby’s heartbeat. Our baby sounded great. The RN, Pam, was trying to get things set up but I moved from room to room to room. She finally asked me where I thought that I would end up and I told her in the hot tub so she set up next to the hot tub.

I told Kellie that as soon as the water was at the right temperature and Trinton was home, I was going to get in the water and push. I didn’t really believe myself. I thought Kellie would laugh but she just said, “Okay.” Trinton got home and then never left my side. He massaged me, held my hand, and let me hang on his neck while I swayed through contractions. I decided to go out on the balcony and rock in a rocking chair. Everyone followed me outside and we hung out on the balcony. The weather was perfect.

Spencer was my water boy. I was really thirsty so he went back and forth from the fridge to me, bringing me cup after cup of water throughout my entire labor. He started to get bored on the balcony so I asked him to go down to the backyard and do tricks on the trampoline for me. Then I remembered that I hadn’t called my sister, Molly. She lives in San Antonio and was going to try and come and take pictures. My mom called her for me and I guess they decided it was too late. Someone got my camera and Trinton and Andrew started taking pictures. The first one is of me on the balcony cheering for Spencer on the trampoline…

I decided that I wanted to move my labor along so I announced that I wanted to go for a walk around the block. No one laughed (out loud). Everyone was ready to follow me around the block! I went inside and Wayne got my shoes on for me and helped me through a contraction...

I went downstairs, ate a snack, and got through a couple of contractions…

What lovely pictures of me chewing while smiling and of my bum... thanks Trinton and Andrew. I love the way Spencer is looking at me in the picture above where he is in the background between me and Wayne. I also love the picture above of just Spencer waiting patiently for his baby sister to arrive.

I changed my mind about the walk. I wanted to get in the water. I went back upstairs and changed into a little terry cloth dress that I had planned to wear in the water…

I went back downstairs and was about to get in the water when I stopped to get through another contraction. My water broke.

I got in the hot tub and Wayne started to go back upstairs to change into his bathing suit. I begged him to come back and just get in the water with his clothes on. He got in the water and was talking to someone about a video recording when I lost it. There was too much going on. I needed to focus. I started to cuss and then decided to growl instead.

I felt that ring of fire and I started to push but I wanted to take this part slow. So I barely pushed. I pushed just enough to ease the pain. I didn’t push at all for two contractions. I think that I was afraid that my baby girl would be as big as or bigger than Spencer. I told myself that my baby girl was small and then I pushed a little harder. I felt my baby squirm. Kellie felt her squirm too and told me later that it seemed like she needed out. Kellie said that I needed to get her out on the next contraction. I knew she would never say that unless I really did need to get her out. I had decided before that day that if she said that, then I was going to push her out fast. So I gave it everything I had on the next contraction. Kellie told me to reach down and get my baby. She knew that I wanted to do that. I don’t know why but I couldn’t do it. So she gave Wayne the opportunity. Wayne reached down into the water and held our baby girl as I finished delivering her. He pulled her up out of the water and put her into my arms at 2:28pm, about 12 minutes after I got in the water.

She didn’t take her first breath right away, so Kellie got to work and helped our baby breathe. I encouraged our baby to breathe. Kellie told Wayne to rub our baby’s feet and make her mad to trigger her breathing. Our boys got on their knees and prayed because I asked them to pray until she was breathing. Later they told me that they didn’t know anything was wrong because we were all so calm. Our baby was turning pink and her heart beat was strong, so she was getting oxygen from the placenta and maybe from the room but there was no visible breath and she was limp. We worked for several minutes and finally she whimpered. That wasn’t enough. We kept trying to make her mad so she would breathe…

Finally she cried. My mom said that it took 7 minutes from the time she came out of the water until she cried. She was mad. We were happy…


We pulled the receiving blankets out of the oven and tried to warm her up but we needed to get out of the water and on to my bed...

She didn’t want to nurse. She was too mad. It’s hard to nurse and cry at the same time. We had worked hard to make her mad and then we couldn’t calm her down for a while!

We hung out on my bed while Kellie and Pam cleaned up and got our herbal bath ready…

I don't know what was up with the Care Bear towel. I had nice, new bath sheets ready for the occasion but somehow I ended up with a little Care Bear towel. When I first saw these pictures, it kind of bugged me... where were my nice big towels? But then I remembered how much my little sister, Kimberly, loved Care Bears and now I think that towel was perfect.

The other neat thing is that the picture hanging on the wall above us is of an angel holding a baby. I bought that picture several years ago because it reminds me of my sister watching over my babies. The more I think about it, the more I really love this picture of my family and some things that represent my sister.

I think it is funny that Wayne ended up in red shorts and a blue shirt. I told him later that he looked like Super Man. I guess he was feeling like a hero that day. :)