Our BABY GIRL has arrived!!!

On February 25th, 2010 at 4:33am, Naomi Joy Carpenter graced our presence! And though the events leading up to the birth (ie: labor and all the false labor) were somewhat difficult and frustrating at times, the actual birthing was very easy for Mommy! Thanks to an epidural, the contractions did all the work and with only one coached push, sweet baby girl came out! My comment was, "That's it?!" The doctor was called in at 4:22am, but by the time he arrived at 5am, she was out for some time. He said, "What happened here?!" They told him that they tried to wait for him, but she just came out on her own too fast. Sweet little Naomi had things to do don't you know!!

She weighed only 7 pounds 6 ounces, much to the relief of Mommy who thought she might have to push an almost 10-pounder out again (like Josiah). I am thinking though that thanks to the gestational diabetes diet that I followed, that this baby didn't chunk on the pounds as easily as Josiah did! She measured at 19 1/2 inches long and has long, skinny fingers and toes like me. She started nursing right away and it seems she will be a good nurser like her brothers Josiah and Daniel were, so I am glad for that. (As a side note, Caleb just never got the hang of it, but I did try!)

We think she has strawberry blonde hair as it isn't super blonde like our other babies. It has a nice little redish tint to it! We think she will have blue eyes also, but it is hard to tell right now. The nurses said she looks like a C-section baby in that her head is round instead of cone shaped, and many have also commented on her nice skin. Her name means "beautiful" or "pleasant" and we think she is very beautiful! Because she wasn't in the birth canal very long, she didn't have much of the amniotic fluid squeezed out of her body and so as the nurses put it, she was very "spitty" at first. At one point, she stopped nursing very well (as if not hungry) and kept gagging and spitting up, and so they decided to pump her stomach. Afterwards, she was a very hungry little girl and didn't spit up at all, so I was glad they could help her in that way!

Here is Daddy holding Naomi shortly after she was born. He is a proud Poppa who I hope got some good sleep last night. He went home around 6pm to be with our boys and got them down for the night. He will come back this morning around 8:30am to be with Naomi and I in the hospital. Daddy discovered that holding her up by her armpits and playing with her feet are two things that make Naomi get a little irritated. She gets a nice square lip like Caleb does when he cries and lets us know that she DOES NOT like her feet played with or to be carried in "such a way!"

She is currently in the stage the nurses call the "feeding frenzy" and last night around 11:00pm she fed for over an hour! I was getting pretty tired and she was NOT settling down very well. I think she had a burp that I couldnt't get out or something. The nurses were able to take her after that long feed though to the nursery and calmed her down, and I did sleep from about midnight to 3:30 or so. Right now, she is getting some of her 24-hour baby tests done and will be back in the room with me shortly.

We are VERY glad that she is with us out in the big world now and are very thankful that she is healthy and doing well! I plan to stay in the hospital another night and then will come home on Saturday morning. David suggested I do this because once I get home, I will have lots of other little people who will want some Mommy time as well! I am taking advantage of the help that the nurses can give me while I am here! Thanks to all who prayed for us during this time and for all your well wishes also. I am sure I will have further updates and pictures of her progress in the weeks to come. For those on facebook, we have a short video posted there of the first few moments after they wrapped her up and brought her over to us after birth.