Introducing Olivia Joy!

We are thrilled to announce the arrival of Olivia Joy. She was born May 31st at 9:11 am -  6 lbs 15 oz and 20" long. At 39 weeks she made it closer to her due date than any of our other kids.  I was starting to get nervous that I wouldn't have her before summer vacation began, but she came on the very last day of school so I ended up having just 1 day of official "maternity leave" with her.

I started having regular contractions around 2:30 am. After about 5 of those, I woke up Seth and we headed to the hospital as soon as Seth's mom came over to stay with the kids - sure is nice having family close by! As soon as I stood up to get ready, the contractions sped up to every 2-3 minutes so it's a good thing I didn't wait it out any longer.

On the way to the hospital, I decided to take the easy way out and get a epidural this time. At 36 and in the middle of the night, the option of giving birth without feeling it was just too tempting. Plus, I kind of just wanted to see what it was like. I loved the experience of having the other 4 naturally and I'm would never go back and change that, but it was pretty nice to have this one easy-peezy. It was absolutely surreal how simple and frankly boring the process was. 

Seth had nothing to do once I couldn't feel the contractions so he took a nap. I dozed off and on for a couple of hours. Around 9:00, Seth grabbed some breakfast and was just starting to eat when the nurse came in and said I was ready to push (news to me!) So he scarfed his breakfast down, I gave it 3 good pushes and she was out. Just like that. A walk in the park. More like a rest on a park bench because I'm pretty sure I have had walks through the park that were like a CrossFit workout compared with this birth. 

And then we had our little girl!!! Healthy, alert and with lots of black hair

 

There has been no shortage of arms to hold this little one. Elena especially has been a super big help holding the baby. Sam is out of the house more often, but when he is home I have double the help! It sure is fun having a new baby with two extras in the house old enough to watch her. The only problem has been the issue of whose turn it is to hold the baby - no one wants to give her up (yet).  Frankie got a turn to hold her once we got home, and when visitors came he was very protective and did not want to give her up. Once we finally got her into Grandma's arms, he was sure to let her know that "she couldn't bring Olivia home with her."

It was a race to the finish with our niece, Brooke whose due date was just one week before ours.  Here we are with our matching bellies:

We both had the name James picked out as our first choice if we had a boy so we weren't sure how that was going to turn out. In the end, it wasn't an issue because we both had girls. Briar was born 3 days before Olivia and was almost 2 pounds heavier. It's amazing to see how different in size two babies almost the exact same age can be. We are so happy for them both that they will have a playmate in the family of the same gender. 

Here are Seth's parents with what could possibly be their last grandchild (you never know) and their first great-grandchild: