We have a lot of kids.

Where do I even begin? I couldn't possibly get to the fact that I now have 5 whole kids until I cover a couple of things leading up to the big day, right? After all, I am a dedicated historian (aka blogger in the year 2012.) Otherwise, how would I ever expect to remember that my sister came to town on my due date? And I got to hang out with her and her husband and her delicious baby for 5 whole days?! Or that we actually got to celebrate Father's Day (which I thought I would get out of by having a baby-just kidding, I was totally looking forward to celebrating and showing grand appreciation for my amazing husband...who became even more amazing in the week to follow when he completely took care of wife, home and kids while I had a new baby...but I'll get to that.)

So before I cover any of that, here is a picture of Clark and Chesty.  Do you not know who he is?  That's OK, neither did I.  But add it to my list of other bizarrely random accomplishments of 2012: star in a prenatal exercise video, have a baby boy, and host Chesty XIII/famous Bulldog mascot of the Marine Corps in my home for a little Sunday evening dessert with friends (who happened to be babysitting him that weekend.)  All they had to say was "he's pretty much famous" and I was all "heck yeah he can come with you" (that, and they couldn't get him to go back into his crate after being cooped up in there all morning.)

These are pictures from the day that I walked to kingdom come and back, a couple of days over my due date.  I was oddly comfortable.  Besides, all you really have to do is promise me a trip to the Pentagon Chocolate Shop at the end of the tour and I'm in.  We took Amy and Chris, and delicious nephew Spencer to the Pentagon.  I think he has a future in politics, don't you?

This was Father's Day...when we came in to sing to Clark and bring him breakfast, he was nowhere to be found....until we opened the closet door and found him crouching in wait.  Just for the record, if I pull into the garage and see that Clark's car is there, the girls will absolutely refuse to go into the house because they know that he is waiting to scare the bejeebees out of them.  Wise girls, if you ask me.  We celebrated Chris too because he is pretty awesome in his St. Patty's day shirt and Christmas pj bottoms and has some of the best morning hair ever.

Then we took a picture of my amazing sister Amy who loves and adores all of her nieces (and nephews) so much that they all asked to go home with her at least twice.  I wish I had gotten a picture of her reading to them...she loves it.  They love it.  PS Amy was in Halloween pj's.  Someone get the Carr's a calendar! or just season appropriate pajamas.

 Spencer was a stand-in for our own baby boy that had yet to make an appearance.

AND NOW, the moment you've all been waiting for, THE BIRTH STORY.
In the beginning, I missed my due date...sailed right passed it and did things like drink raspberry tea, eat spicey food and walk 5 miles through the Pentagon. I reluctantly scheduled an induction, disappointed that my body hadn't done it's thing. (I have a history of slightly larger babies and since it's a VBAC we don't want things, meaning babies, getting out of hand thus making a VBAC less possible.) Therefore, I scheduled an induction. And rather than dropping off our kids at people's houses at 5:00 in the morning, we dropped them off the night before.
But not without letting them all say good-bye to "boy in utero".

Then Clark and I went home, ate ice cream and watched a movie with the volume turned up unnecessarily loud since there were no children upstairs to wake up. Are you afraid that I am already including way too many details and I haven't even gotten to the hospital yet? Don't be. The next part goes kinda fast. At 1:00am I woke up with hard contractions. They were 6 minutes apart. Then they were 4 minutes apart. I took a shower. I made Clark get up and brush his teeth. We left for the hospital at 3:30am. When I checked in at the front desk I didn't even have to go through triage since I was already scheduled for the induction later that morning.  I like to think that since it was baby number 5, they just believed me when I said I was in labor.

A baby boy was born at 7:52am. My goal of going medication free was accomplished only half way. I went into labor on my own, success. My body actually did know what to do. I did not make it without an epidural. It turns out that all those things that I was prepared to do to ease my contractions made me really angry when actually in labor.  I sat on the ball, hated it.  I leaned over the bed, pain.  I flattened my body out on the bed in "maximum relaxation position", pressure! I decided that even though I had prepared and practiced and had it all worked out in my mind, my brain and my body do NOT communicate well. By 5:30 am I was hanging on to Clark during contractions and gripping his jeans so tight I wanted to tear him to shreds. So I got an epidural. It made me want to live again. My regret came in the form of the anesthesiologist getting the needle all the way through to that slightly off-spot which provided me with a splendid epidural headache for 5 days after Jonah was born. Even though my legs were completely dead, it was still my most uncomfortable labor. I was having front and back labor.
The things that excited me the most though were that I didn't need pitocin, my water broke by itself (that was kinda exciting) and for the first time ever I told the medical staff that it was time to push. I felt him come out. The kid that we thought was going to be our smallest was actually our biggest. He was so long.  I knew all during my pregnancy that he wasn't very big necessarily, just long.  Even during the pushing I had my hands pushing down on top of my stomach which was still all the way up in my ribs.  It was like he didn't have the space to "drop".  The relief was incredible as he came out because of the immediate space he left up by my ribs.  It was like he was pushing off with his feet from the inside. And I felt him come out...he just kept coming and coming. It was a little like birthing a length of sausages. They immediately put him on my chest and I was in awe of his long, blond hair and nearly transparent eyelashes.

It was perfectly lovely timing.  The sun was just coming up through the enormous windows in my room and here was the beginning.  The staff was wonderful.  I was surrounded by the most caring and considerate nurses and midwives I have ever had.  They were thoughtful and deliberate having sympathetically and carefully listened to every bit of my history, concerns and expectations.  I would have to say that over all, it went very well.
I really just wanted it to happen quickly, which it pretty much did.  But now that it's over, I am kind of sad.  That moment is so intense, and so amazingly surreal, I just don't ever want to forget those minutes when I was ushering in each and every child.

 Just look at those handsome boys.

I become very emotionally needy when I have a baby.  I suddenly don't want to be alone.  Even though Clark had to step out a couple of times to shuttle girls around, he came back and slept two uncomfortable nights in the hospital to help every step of the way.

 And then the girls came and we were all there, our family of 7!

This girl in particular, has found a new passion...her very own baby brother.  As much as I want to be the one to always calm him and keep him happy, she has a magic touch.

We had a couple of other visitors while in the hospital which was nice to break up the time.  They had to keep Jonah for 48 hours since I had not had time to receive both doses of a particular shot after checking in before he was born-so we had lots of time to kill.  We are so grateful for the people that kept our girls entertained and happy while we were there.

He was so long that the little nursery issued onesie looked like a muscle t.

 And then we came home.

And life resumed...

Mia had a dance recital.  I put mascara on her amazing eyelashes that I couldn't get back off again.  I missed the recital but Clark and the older girls went and recorded it.  Even though the make up totally creeps me out, her little dancing body makes my heart swell.

And then I took some more pictures of my baby because new Moms tend to do that.

Just in case you were wondering...he looks like all of the girls, depending on the day.

But he looks a lot like Clark as a baby,

(I cannot, for the life of me, find the baby picture of him that I am thinking of.)

except for his little gorilla nose, that's mine.