Maybelle Cleo

Our little peaches arrived 2 weeks early, what a blessing to her momma!

On Wednesday my doctor "stretched" my cervix.  AKA he stuck his man hand in there and completely stripped everything or something, I don't know what all went on, but it hurt soooo bad worse then any part of child birth that's for sure.  I was convinced it wouldn't do anything and didn't want to get my hopes up.

The next day, on Thursday (38 wks) I walked the neighborhood to school, went to the gym, texted all my friends that were NOT at the gym and hopefully made them feel guilty that 38 wk preggy Emily WAS at the gym, went to the mall with Kensington, walked to school again, and by that point I was having some contractions (not painful at all).  But I had the fake contractions all along this pregnancy so I wasn't concerned.  I figured I would go over due like always.  Being over due is torturous.  

Amaryllis had a friend over that afternoon and life was going on as normal, then all the sudden I felt like I peed myself.  It was weird.  It was my water breaking.  It's not like in the movies where a gallon of liquid rushes out.  I didn't really know what to do and was unsure if that's what it was.  I called the doc, they said to go to the hospital and get my fluids checked.  Grrrrreat, so not convenient at 4pm during rush hour with Jake still at work and the hospital in the opposite direction.

Anyways, I have SUCH great friends.  I threw some jammies and kids backpacks in a bag for the girls and dropped them at a friends.  My 2 friends totally worked it out who was going where, and I honestly didn't worry a bit about the girls, even though that's SO not me to not worry.  Especially because they had never had a sleep over and Kensington is a weird sleeper so I just wasn't sure how it would all go.  But I didn't worry at all.  My homegirls got it under control.

My friend texted me these picts of the kids at their first sleepover, they loved it!

 

 At the hospital we waited around forever.  Wait for IV.  Wait for Potossum.  Wait for doctor.  Watch Project Runway.  Doctor comes.  Wait for contractions. Push 3 times.  Chat in between pushes while waiting for the next contraction.  Didn't even break a sweat.  It was weird to chit-chat during such a monumental life moment.  All I can say is an epidural...so amazing.

And out she came!  Two weeks early and already 8lb 5oz so she would've been a biggun' if she'd cooked some more.  This hospital did skin-to-skin for the first hour, where they leave you alone and put the baby on you (first time I'd held one of my newborns with all the birth gunk, kinda weird, but I liked it).  It was so quiet and peaceful and she wasn't screaming.  The other 2 births, they wisk the baby to the other side of the room and do all the scrubbing and shots while the baby is screaming it's head off and you are craning your neck to see her.  This was so much quieter and relaxing.  We were on Facetime with my parents in Chile.  Of course, as luck would have it, Jake's parents were in Catalina (an Island off of CA you have to take a ferry to), the most inaccessible place they could be for a midnight birth, haha.  It provides us with a good laugh though.

 

Since Amaryllis was named after my favorite musical, The Music Man.  And Kensington was named after my favorite childrens book, Peter Pan.  Then of course Maybelle had to be named after a favorite too.  We picked a name from my favorite book Gone With the Wind, a name that exudes southerness and everything I love about the south.

She's a minor character in the movie, but throughout the book she is sort of Scarlett's envy, everything opposite, a blonde pretty docile belle with a good heart that Scarlett certainly doesn't possess.

We usually do family middle names.  My great grandma Cleo was an amazing woman.  I actually wanted that name for both my other girls but Jake wasn't a fan--I wore him down though :)  She passed away when I was in college and it was the first funeral I ever attended.  Here's part of her obituary:

"Cleo Cranney Hinckley, 111, Utah's oldest resident, died Monday, Sept. 30, 2002, in Salt Lake City, just 13 days shy of her 112th birthday.  A graduate of West High School, she was the top business student there and excelled at shorthand.  In 1912, she was one the first two female missionaries for the LDS Church to serve in Los Angeles. While on her mission, she helped many refugees from Mexico arrive in Los Angeles. In one of her primary classes, she had taught a young lad, Marion G. Romney, who later became a member of the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Mrs. Hinckley attended Utah Agricultural College in Logan and later became secretary to the president of the college. She also later worked as a secretary for several Salt Lake City businesses.

She married Parnell Hinckley on Sept. 19, 1919, shortly after his return from World War I. Parnell is first cousin to LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley. The young Hinckley family to Millard County where members of his family had homesteaded farmland. They lost their farm during the Great Depression, and the tough times took them to Beaver, then to Pine Point, Minn., where the Hinckleys worked as teachers on the Chippewa Indian Reservation.  The family then returned to Salt Lake City in 1930 and bought the house where they would live for the rest of their lives."

The girls are smitten.  SMITTEN.

 

Amaryllis just can't get enough.  Somehow, every time I turn around, she's sneaked an arm around baby sis and is just staring at her.  It's really sweet.

 

We decided to leave the hospital after 1 day, who can sleep there anyways?  I really do miss my mom, but now Grandma K has arrived with a truck load of food, and when I think back on the events of the past few days, I feel truly blessed to be surrounded by an amazing husband, family, and friends.

We are healthy and happy.  I can't help but think that part of these blessings--a healthy pregnancy, easy birth, and beautiful baby girl, and lots of love from other people-- come from my parents serving and sacrificing in Chile, and the Lord truly watching down on us kids so they can continue with their good works.