^ This was the text message my friends received on Tuesday, June 12th, without any warning at all of me being in labor. Hell, I barely had any warning of being in labor. All those rumors about exercise during pregnancy making for a shorter labor are definitely true.
At 12:15 my water began to break, so I called Eric to give him the heads up that he may have to leave work early. And it's a good thing he did - he was at work a half hour away, and once he got to the hospital, little Hannah made her grand (and fast) appearance into the world within 45 minutes. From start to finish, my entire labor was less than 3 hours. Certainly beats the 25 hour labor I had with Lyla. However, it went so fast that I didn't have time for my beloved and much wanted epidural, so this little girl was born all natural.
The entire first day she was born, I was in shock. It was almost too fast to fathom what had just happened. I kept asking Eric if i was dreaming, especially because for some reason, I was in very little pain afterwards. I was up and walking within minutes of my delivery. All of our visitors were poking fun at me for being in such disbelief of Hannah actually being here. It didn't feel real. And on top of that, she was an amazing nurser and sleeper. What? Is this newborn for real? I had to wake her during the night for all her feedings otherwise she would have slept right through them. Foreign territory for me since Lyla was up nearly every hour as a newborn - and even still wakes during the night at almost 3 years old.
And as if all of that wasn't enough to make me question if I was dreaming, Eric and I have been getting along better than ever. He's been simply amazing; if he's not holding Hannah, he's playing with Lyla. If he's not with the girls, he's helping with the dishes. Another foreign territory for me. Aren't we supposed to be sleep deprived and arguing over who works harder and who got the most sleep? He even took a week off from work after Hannah was born to stay home and help me adjust to everything. I keep waiting for the storm to roll in since this feels like the calm. It can't be this good, this easy, can it?
Hannah is doing amazing. She nurses so well that I've nearly lost all my pregnancy weight and she's only 9 days old. Unfortunately my belly won't fully shrink until my uterus goes back to its normal size in about 5 weeks. But this little girl loves to eat and sleep - it's made the adjustment from 1 to 2 much easier with her being such a good baby. She only cries when she's hungry, and once she's fed she's either contently awake until her next feeding, or snoozing away. This has made for an easy adjustment for Lyla, too. She pretty much ignores her most of the time, until she's fussy and ready to eat. Then Lyla will pretend to cry and say "no Mommy, I need you" which broke my heart the first time she said it. But I've incorporated her into Hannah's feedings by reading her favorite books to her, which so far as worked out well.
It's hard to believe that Hannah's really here. Just over a week ago we were doing all we could to start my labor, and now she's really here. She's perfect, with 10 fingers and 10 toes, happy, and healthy. Hard to believe Lyla was ever that little, and even harder to believe that Hannah will grow up to be a big girl like her sister. I'm appreciating all these surprisingly easy days, and prepared for the hard days to come. But either way I'm enjoying the ride and loving watching our family grow. So glad you're here, baby girl!
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