Lindey's First Bath (at home)

Grandma Millett came to help me after Lindey was born. The morning after we got home from the hospital she helped give Lindey's bath.  That girl hates being undressed! 

Lindey screamed through her entire bath and didn't stop until she had her diaper and socks on.  Then she calmed down a little. :)

Feeling much better now.  Thanks for the cute outfit Grandma!

At home with Lindey

Since the little boys didn't get to come to the hospital to see the baby they were super excited to hold her.  (I thought for sure Eli would be climbing all over me when we came home--he was kind of a mamas boy, but he surprised me and only wanted to hold Lindey and give her kisses...

...lots of kisses.  Eli was so cute with her.

Micah with Lindey.  She is definantly going to be one loved little girl with these two around!

Lindey Lucille Hughes

Our baby girl decided to come two weeks early.  We had planned to be induced on Thursday, but Easter Sunday I went into labor (which I had never done before--we've always been induced).  I started  not feeling well around 5:00pm.  I was nausious, and had diarreah, and just didn't feel good.  Around 7:30pm I started having contractions.  We called the doctor around 9:00pm, my contractions were 5 or 6 minutes apart, so he told us to head to the hospital just to be on the safe side, especially where we have to travel an hour to get there.  By 10:00pm we had the kids situated, I got my blessing from John, and we were headed to the hospital.  With all the rushing around (I still hadn't packed my hospital bag) we forgot to take our usual picture of me being pregnant.  We took one in the hospital after I remembered.

I wanted to go natural without an epidural this time.  This labor was not much different than my other children.  I was progressing slowly.  We came into the hospital dialated to a 3, and by 6am I was at a 4.  The nurses wanted me to be at a 5 before they would admit me.  Before that I was just on observation.  My doctor came in after 7am told the nurses to admit me that I wasn't going anywhere and he broke my water.

After being in labor through the morning, I was dialated to an 8.  The nurse came in to check my progress and said she thought she felt the baby's ear and shoulder in the birth canal.  My doctor came in and tried to turn her.  She kept going back to that position, so he said we'd give her some time to try and turn on her own.  After another couple of hours, she still hadn't turned, so Dr. Gagon wanted me to have an epidural so he could turn the baby without hurting me so much.  Bummer!  So much for going natural. :)  I was grateful for the drugs as he spent close to an hour trying to get the baby turned.  She just was not budging and without the pressure of her head on my cervix, I wasn't dialating past an 8.  Dr. Gagon told us that the baby was not in danger--her heart rate and oxygen levels were good, but it wasn't looking like she would be turning herself to be born vaginally.  He recommended doing a C-Section.  This scared me to death.  I''ve never had surgery before, and all my previous births were so easy.  I couldn't believe this was happening.  I cried on John's shoulder for a bit, and had him give me a blessing. I was so tired, so I was glad that it would be over soon.  They started prepping me just after 6:00pm for the C-Section.  John had to wear scrubs to come into the operating room with me.  I couldn't pass up the photo opportunity. :)

They had to do a spinal tap in the operating room for the C-Section.  So not only was I not doing this naturally, but we had to pay for an epidural AND a spinal tap.  That was frustrating to me. John thought they said that baby was coming, and stood up too early and saw way more than he wanted.  He sat back down next to me and said he felt like he was going to pass out.  I tried to get him to focus, but then I saw his eyes glaze over and he fell towards me.  He hit the table next to my shoulder and fell on the floor.  I couldn't do anything--both my arms were strapped down and I couldn't see anyone to get him some help.  I hated that feeling. :(  Pretty soon they noticed he was on the floor and told him to lay still for a minute.  The C-Section went smoothly (It took them longer to prep than to do the surgery) and after a few short minutes I got to see my baby girl over the curtain before the took her to take her vitals.  That was hard to not be able to hold her right away.  I've always been able to do that.  One of the nurses grabbed our camera from John while he was sitting down and took pictures for us so we wouldn't miss anything.  

I love this picture of John's hands around Lindey's feet. :) 

Lindey Lucille Hughes was born Monday, April 25th, 2011 at 6:51pm.  She weighed 7 lbs. 9.5 oz. and was 20 inches in length.  We named her after my Grandma Willard.

Mommy with Lindey.  She was so beautiful and absolutely perfect.  I still didn't get to hold her until after I went to recovery for an hour or so.  It almost didn't seem real that I had this baby. Delivery was so different from the other 5 kids.

While I was in recovery, John was able to go to the nursery with Lindey and the nurses let him give her a bath and clean her up.  He hadn't done this before, so it was a special time for him. (I'm glad the nurse saw the value in taking photos for me.  They are some of my favorite pictures.) 

When the nurses took her for the night, they brought her back to me with her cap off and a cute bow in her hair.  So precious!

She was quite alert--taking in the world.

A couple of days later John's parents brought our three oldest children to see Lindey.  (The two little boys get carsick so they didn't want to deal with that.  The boys stayed home with my mom who had come to help me after Lindey was born--I felt kind of ripped off because I was in the hospital with the C-Section four of the six days my mom was there.  I felt bad I had planned to get all these things done around the house before Lindey was born--Laundry, Summer clothing for the boys, clean the house, etc.  When Lindey came four days early, that stuff fell upon my mom to do--Sorry Mom!!)  Morgan was the first to hold her little sister.  She was so excited it wasn't a boy this time.

Zander was so cute with her.  He was holding her and said, "Look, she even came with a bow!"  He was so excited.

Ian holding Lindey. 

Zander was so concerned with how I was doing.  I could tell he wanted to give me a hug, but didn't want to hurt me.  I had him climb onto the bed next to me and he told me all about what he'd been doing while we were away.  He really liked that. :)

Lindey was pretty sleepy while we were in the hospital. (Probally from the drugs I was being given and giving her in my breastmilk.)  We had to unwrap her to get her to wake up long enough to eat.  The nurses took her so I could sleep and when they brought her back she had on these cute little booties.  The nurses said her feet were cold and they had had her on the warmer.

We were in the hospital for four days.  We went home on Thursday.  We found this cute little white dress with pink trim and jacket at Sears.  She looked so cute in it--even if it was a little big on her.

Waiting around to be discharged.  That process always takes WAY too long.

Sleeping comfortably in her carseat for the ride home to Green River.  She looks so small in it!  I think you forget how small brand new babies really are. :) 

Welcome to the family baby girl!

Baby Shower

No, I did not ask to have a baby shower.  I don't think being on baby number 6 warrants one, but my friend, Heather,  thought otherwise.  She asked me several weeks ago if I was having one.  I told her no, that I was on baby number 6 and didn't think I needed one.  She responded with, "Well, people are going to bring you gifts anyway, why not add cookies and punch??"  Good point!  I couldn't argue with that! 
Heather and another friend, Jenni, got together and decided to do a joint baby shower for me and our friend Danielle (who is due the week after me).  They held it on April 16th, which turned out to be a very busy day for everyone, but it was a lot of fun, and I'm glad they threw the shower for our little girls. This is Danielle and her mother (It was very sweet of her mom to bring me a gift, since I don't know her that well, and definantly wasn't expecting that!)

The shower started off with crafts and treats. Heather made some very fun treats--cookies, donut holes on a stick, lemon/lime bars, chips and dip and pink lemonade. For the crafts, Danielle and I each picked out 6 different materials and they sewed them onto burp rags for us.

They also helped us make a banner to hang above the crib. I brought Morgan along and the little girl in purple is Danielle's daughter.  They are both the only girls in the family and are extrememly excited to be getting a little sister.

We each had our own little pile of cuteness to unwrap.  We got a lot of things that we needed--bath stuff, diapers, wipes, blankets, and clothing.  Heather made me a changing pad that holds the diapers and travel wipes.  I am so excited it matches the diaper bag we bought--how did she know? She also made me the cutest little shoes--now I need to buy an outfit that will match them, darn it!  I wish I could name every little thing we got, but I won't bore you--I'll save that for the baby book.  I'm probally the only one that will care to remember. LOL

 It was a fun little shower, that was not expected, but very much appreciated!  Thanks for thinking of us Heather and Jenni! :)

We've had our ultrasound...

   I will be nicer than my husband and not keep you in suspense for so long. (His blog post was 3 different ones by the time he let anyone know!) We will be buying PINK!! Yes, it's a girl! :) We are so excited, and almost can't believe it.  The lady that did our ultrasound checked several times to make sure and said she was not retracting her decision. (We only got an 83% percent chance of girl with Morgan--she was being modest and wouln't show us much.) We got several ultrasound pictures, and one that there is no question that it is a girl.  Yea!!  :)  Morgan was doing a dance all over the room with the biggest smile on her face.  She was giggling she was so excited!  We are glad about that.  Micah was mad--he wanted a brother.  And Zander asked why there couldn't be two babies--one boy and one girl so everyone would be happy.  We had him look at the screen again and pointed out that there was only one baby there, and it was a girl.  We've had our share of boys!  They have 3 (or 4) brothers so a sister will be a nice change.
   The rest of the ultrasound went well.  The baby looks healthy and is measuring right for my due date.  She said the baby weighs about 14 oz.  After the ultrasound was done, John took the kids out of the room so I could put myself back together and the tech was telling me that she didn't think we had any hope of a girl.  All the ultrasounds she had done the past few weeks were boys.  She was excited that we got our wish.  I was glad we had a good technician.  You never know when you have to go to the hospital to have it done.  (Our doctor is a family doctor and isn't certified to do this extensive of an ultrasound, even though they have a machine in their office.)  She was really good to tell the kids what we were looking at and showed them different things.  It was fun.  I will try to add some ultrasound pictures once we get them scanned into the computer.
  So, now you know too!  :)  We get to add another daughter to our family. We feel very blessed (and so excited we can't stop grinning!). Thank heaven for little girls!