Welcome to the World, Jane Elizabeth Hymas

7 lbs 19 3/4 inches long

I couldn't wait to find out what little Lizzy Jane was going to look like. Would she have dark brown tufts of hair like Ana? Or white peach fuzz like Benji? What would her tiny little face look like, and her eyes? Last Friday evening we got to find out! And right in line with the pattern that we've set, too. Ana came right on her due date, B came a day early, and this little gal came 2 days early!

When the doctor handed her to me, I was once again amazed at the awesomeness of life. It's incredible to think that those little bodies are growing inside you for so long. And incredible when they come out crying and kicking, and they are living, breathing souls! After the nurse handed little miss Jane to me, my first thought was that she has dark brown hair just like Ana did.

I'm glad I got to focus on little Jane during those precious moments afterward, and not be too overwhelmed with agonizing pain, cause that ALMOST happened. Had I gotten to the hospital much later, it would have been too late to get my epidural.

That's because I have the hardest time judging when to go to the dang hospital! I don't want to check in and then sit on a hospital bed for hours, plugged with gadgets and IVs. I'd rather labor at home for free. So I try to follow the general guidelines of contractions around 5 min apart (is that even what it is??), and too painful to talk through.

My contractions once again started around 5 a.m. At around 6:30 I got up to eat breakfast because I couldn't sleep through them any longer. Thad got home from the gym just as I was sitting down to eat. He looked at me questioningly because if you know me, you know that getting up at 6:30 on my own is highly unlikely. I smiled slyly and said, "what does your day look like today?"

"Why?" he replied, knowing something unusual was going on.

"Because we may be having a baby today," I replied, trying to contain my excitement.

Thad got ready and went to work, knowing that we was on "on-call." I texted my mom and told her she was on alert as well. But as the morning progressed, I started to doubt myself. The contractions weren't getting closer together, and didn't seem to be getting progressively stronger. They were very sporadic. I started to think that it may take a little longer for this one to come, and that was totally not cool, because Ana and Benji's labors both progressed steadily throughout the day and I had the same high expectations this time around.

Thad came home at lunch and told me that he'd taken the afternoon off, which was great news. We planned to take the kids out to eat for a spicy meal to get things rolling (or contracting), and then go walk the mall to speed things up. But by 2 ish, my contractions were starting to get a little more painful, and I thought maybe we will skip the mall and just grab something to eat. And then I realized my contractions were coming about every 7 to 10 minutes apart, and some were pretty painful. Forget all that, we'd better take the kids to my parents, I decided. So we grabbed the kids' bags and my hospital bag and headed to my parent's house around 3. They had agreed to watch the kids for us while we were in the hospital.

Thad and I left my parents' house around 4:30 p.m. and since we hadn't eaten yet, we decided to grab a quick bite to eat before heading to the hospital. When I had Analyn, my doctor told us to eat a nice big meal before we checked into the hospital because I wouldn't be able to eat once I got all hooked up. We have taken that advice every time. By now my contractions were even more sharp and I had a hard time walking through them. I knew we needed to hurry it up. So we scarfed down some Rumbi Island Grill, me stopping and breathing and wincing every 5-7 minutes as a contraction came on. I'm sure we were a funny sight.

Before we left the restaurant, I realized that we'd forgotten to leave the car seats with my parents. But by now some of my contractions were 3 minutes apart, and I thought we'd really better go. So we forgot about the car seats and booked it to the hospital. We didn't mean for everything to take as long as it did. When I walked up to the counter on the second floor of Mountain View, all flushed and excited, my doctor was sitting right there with the nurses, killing time. Perfect!

They got me in a room immediately (it was about 5:40 p.m.), chit-chatting as they hooked me up, and asking me all of those medical questions as they got my bracelets on and started the IV. When the nurse checked me, she was so surprised. I was at an 8, almost 9! WHOA! WHAT?? I had no idea I was that far along. She had another nurse come in and double check me because she couldn't believe how calm I was for being that far!

At first I was thinking, sweet! This oughta go really fast! Up to this point I was still pretty relaxed and just excited. And then I realized, CRAP! I'm at a 9, and I don't have my epidural yet!! And then a slight degree of panic set in. The nurses had called the anesthesiologist and he was on his way.

"He's not here??!!" I asked, trying to remain calm. I know people who arrive too late at the hospital and can't get their epidurals (Katherine), and I had no desire to  be one of them. Nope, that's not for me. The nurse saw the panic in my eyes and she tried to reassure me by letting me know that if I had to perform a natural birth, that she would walk me through it. If I had endured the contractions this far, and was doing this good, then she was sure I could handle a natural birth. Her words pretty much bounced off of my ears because there was no way that was going to happen. At one point, the nurse -- who was still going through my medical history and getting my chart started -- asked me if I had any problems with epidurals. I jokingly replied that if I didn't get my epidural, I was going to have problems. She laughed. And I prayed. And bless his heart, that anesthesiologist showed up so fast, in his scrubs, ready to go. He had just gotten home from running errands after being at the hospital all day when he got the call, too. Poor guy.

I apologized profusely at pulling him away from his family after he'd spent all day at the hospital, while at the same time thanking him almost hysterically for saving me from my worst nightmare. I'm not sure if it was relief from getting the epidural or what, but suddenly I was hit by a wave of nostalgia and I just wanted to tell everyone in that room how much I was thankful for them and how much I loved this hospital, and I was so glad I was having my baby there. Seriously, those thoughts almost spilled out of my mouth, they were so strong. I'm glad I held them in. I would have looked like a crazy lady.

So after about 20 tense minutes of drama (ok it wasn't that bad, I think I maintained a level of mostly calmness while slightly freaking out in my head), the epidural kicked in pretty quickly, and before we knew it we were discussing skiing, careers, and family. A few minutes later, Dr. Leavitt came in, and baby Jane entered the world at 7:14 p.m.

In the meantime, my parents were able to get the car seats and they brought the kids over to see the baby. They were so excited! And hopped up on something, they were seriously bouncing off the walls, and running wild. Ana was so excited to hold her baby sister, and Benji just wanted to get up close and look at her. "Baby Dane!" he kept saying.

Kind of a whirlwind experience! So note to self, next time, try not to wait so long before going to the hospital. Maybe we'll order our food ahead and eat it in the car:)


Some pics!

I'm not sure when we took this, maybe after my epidural set in and the panic of a natural birth dissolved? We were so excited to meet out little baby!

I think we have this exact same picture, pose, smile, ect. for all three kids. Haha. Maybe we should work on changing things up a little next time:)

Silly faces!

Ana was soooo excited to hold her little sister!

Getting ready to leave hospital. I love my time in the hospital, sleeping, eating, taking baths, and spending time with my new baby. But I was also really ready to go, because that bed was so uncomfortable! I think I bruised my rear spending hours sitting on it, nursing Jane. (Ok and I know that bow is a bit excessive, but I couldn't resist trying it out. It's still a bit big:) And it doesn't match her outfit.

Thad came straight from church to help us pack up and leave