Still My Baby

I was on my computer today and heard Sophie giggling behind me. I turned and looked, and this is what I saw:

She found all the baby things I put out yesterday in preparation for Baby 2's arrival, and she was having a BALL!!! Laughing and giggling, batting at the kick-toys, bouncing up and down, putting her feet up... I think she remembers that they were hers not more than a few months ago.

Go Sophia! Go!

My little cheerleader

Showing off her wicked baton twirling skills...

...
...
...ta dah!

Her proud finish!

No Doubt

There is no doubt about who Sophia looks like...


Left: Jared at 6 months
Right: Sophia at 6 months

A Day in the Life: Sophia Nourse

Saying Good Morning to Daddy on the phone

Doin' the morning work-out routine. Push-ups til she drops.

Helping Momma make lunch

Every chef knows you gotta taste your food

Hugs for Ruby

Kitty Kisses

Cuddlin'

Bright Eyes

A Birth Story...

...Continued

Sophia Colette Nourse

After 45 minutes of cleaning me up, we were ready to introduce our beautiful little girl to the family waiting down the hall. Jared roused Grandma Becky, Auntie Anna, and Papa Nourse from their sound sleep, and proclaimed "It's a girl!" They all came in with smiles and tears flowing in abundance. Grandma Becky was the first one to hold little Sophie, followed by Aunt Anna. Unfortunately Papa Nourse had a very bad cold, and was only able to look on in love. Phone calls were made that spurred Grandpa Jim and Uncle Nathan to come rushing to the hospital. After about an hour of oodling and cooing at the baby, the family went home to get some sleep, with promises to return in the morning.

Around 5AM, Erin and Richard arrived to get their peek at our little one. Erin stayed with Sophia and me while Jared, Richard and Nathan ran to McDonald's for some long-awaited nourishment (Jared and I had not eaten since 2PM, and even then we split a grilled cheese so it wasn't much). While the boys were gone, the nurse came in to do Sophia's footprints! She was so good and held very still. We quickly realized that she has daddy's long toes!

Everyone left by 6AM, and it was time to get some rest. After about an hour of sleep, various nurses came in to assess mother and baby, and make sure we were both recovering okay. The pediatrician checked Sophia and said she was doing great! She did mention that she heard a small heart murmur, but that was pretty normal in newborns and that she would check it again the next day. The rest of that day (Thursday) was filled with guests, gifts, assessments, eating, smiling and sleeping. It was surreal, yet wonderful. How could this amazing, beautiful little baby be ours?

A Birth Story...

Sophia Colette Nourse

As most of you know, Sophia joined our family on Thursday, September 27th, 2007. It was the most beautiful (and painful) day of our lives. I am going to share the story over the next several posts, as there is so much to tell.

After our labor date on Tuesday night, I went to bed discouraged because I was not having any contractions. During the night, I woke up to several contractions, but they were very sporadic and infrequent. I woke up Wednesday morning and went to nanny as usual. I started at 9AM, and told Cara that I had been having some contractions, but they had mostly stopped by 7AM that morning. Almost immediately after she left, the contractions started up again, and they were only 7 minutes apart! I was in constant contact with both Jared, and Cara, keeping them aware of the situation. By 2pm, Cara was home and helping me through the "painful" ones (retrospect clearly shows these contractions were nothing in comparison to what was to come). Jared arrived at 3PM. It was at this point that my contractions sped up, and were now only 4-5 minutes apart. Jared drove me to Gary's house, because he has a huge jacuzzi bathtub. I soaked in the warm water for about 20 minutes before we realized it was slowing down the contractions. So I got out immediately. After about an hour, and the contractions were getting more and more intense, we left for the hospital.

This is what the sky looked like on our way to the hospital. God painted us an amazing picture to welcome our miracle into the world.

Jared pulled the car up to the emergency entrance, and I opened my door and climbed out. The second that both of my feet were on the ground, my water broke. Talk about timing! I waddled into the ER, and they wheeled me up to the maternity floor. On the way up, the nurse told me that they only had one room left-- the waterbirth room. Little did she know that we wanted to do a waterbirth! God saved that room just for us. At this point, even though I was in intense pain, I was completely amazed at how God was working everything out. To top it all off, our favorite midwife was on-call, and came in to deliver our baby.

We arrived at the hospital at 6pm, and endured 6 hours of painful contractions before they allowed me to get in the tub. When we arrived, I was dilated to 3cm, 80% effaced and baby was at "0" station. When they finally let me in the tub I was 100% effaced, and baby was at +2 station, but I was only 5cm dilated. It took about 1.5 hours of tub time for me to dilate to 8cm, at which point I got the urge to push. The midwife told me to wait (which was incredibly difficult). After another half hour, I was dilated to 9cm and started to push. After a little over an hour, Sophia made her entrance! Jared pulled her out of the water and held her up for me to see. He told me with amazement, "It's a little girl!"

Jared cut the cord, and then I got out of the tub and onto the bed, where I spent the next 45 minutes cuddling and loving my daughter...

Sophia Colette Nourse

6lbs 13oz

20 1/4 inches long

3:12am, September 27th, 2007

Woodwinds Health Campus