My life with two under two has been good so far. Probably the most exhausting week of my life but still pretty darn good. Who can complain when they have two darling little girls that they can call their own??? I realized that I didn't post baby's weight or anything...just pix. She was born on Sun Sept 27, her actual due date! They say that only like 5% of babies actually come on their due date, so you know she is special. That and she was born on Sunday-sunday's child, full of grace! Belle was born at 2:59 p.m weighing in at 9lbs 6oz 21 inches long. No epidural and I can honestly say that this labor, although pretty short-KICKED MY BUTT!!! The pain was so intense I was actually considering an epidural but decided against when I was back in my right mind. But they did give me some pain meds called nu-vein or something heavenly like that. I'm sure if that was a street drug, it would go for millions. I loved it and it took the edge off enough to get through everything!!

Even though baby was born on Sunday, I was having contractions since Wednesday. Two hospital visits later and no baby and no sign of baby coming, I was pretty frustrated. Every little pain and weird feeling I felt was driving me mad and I felt like it was all I could think of. When Sunday finally rolled around and no baby, we decided to go to church and after I was all dolled up and we were enjoying a gourmet cinnamon roll from the Ann Arbor FArmer's MArket beforewe went to church, my water broke! Yippee! Even though I was pretty sure that it was my water and not me peeing my pants, I called the doctor and she said to get to the hospital because either way, I was going to have a baby today! That struck fear and excitement into my heart but I was excited to finally meet our little baby! Off to the hospital we went and a few hours later, baby made her entrance into the world.

For those of you in the area, I delivered at the new Henry Ford Hospital and was NOT impressed! For the way people have talked that hospital up, it was no better than any of the other ones. Nothing was stocked in my room, the nurses were NOT helpful, especially the one who was with me during labor. I shouldn't even say she was the nurse with me during labor because she wasn't even in the room. I don't know if that is normal, all I know is with Ruby, my nurse was there with me every second until baby was delivered. This nurse only came in if I called her. No offense to Matt, but he has never had a baby and doesn't really know what to do or how to help me through it so besides feeling physically horrible, I also felt emotionally alone and horrible during that time. It sucked. Thank heavens there is a beautiful light at the end of the tunnel named Belle and it was all worth it. I won't go back to that hospital though. Bleh!!

Ruby came to meet her little sis that afternoon with my mom. She came inlooking totally bewildered and wondering what was going on. She saw me and got excited and ran over to me. What a little sweetie. I think she was kind of mad at me for leaving her though. She was kind of excited to see the baby and wanted to touch her and kept saying hello to her. She was just kind of weirded out by the whole situation. She was too small to understand what was going on completely but by now she is realizing that baby is not leaving. She is actually doing pretty good with her. She still likes to touch her and pat her head and hands but we need to work on being gentle. Ruby doesn't know her own strength. She gave her a heeadbutt the other day and they both started screaming. That is when I realized I may be in over my head.

Even though the girls are so close together in age, I forgot how hard the newborn stage really is. The constant feedings, the crying, the floppiness of their little bodies, the poor little ones trying to get used to the world. It is a hard stage. Belle cries a lot when she is awake. She is a champion nurser, which is killing me but I am thankful that we won't have to use formula this time around. It is just so time consuming and still in the painful stage. I dread nightfall because who knows what is going to happen and how much sleep I will get. It is also a lonely time. That is another thing you forget about...Even with TV or books or whatever, it is still hard to be up when you are so tired and everyone else is dead to the world. I had a hard time sleeping the first four days after she was born so I am still trying to catch up on that sleep which I think is a lost cause. I am worried about when Matt goes to work tomorrow and I have to do all this by myself. I know how I get when I don't get enough sleep and it is not pretty. I don't want to take it out on the babies and be a cranky mom. UGH!!! We'll see how it goes. It comforts me to know that millions of other people have done this too and they are still alive!!!!!!

All in all, life is good. The girls are adorable and I love my kiddies. I love being a mom, no matter how hard it is. I appreciate my mom SO MUCH MORE and am still amazed that she did this 7 times, and that she is not in the crazy house!!!! I'll post some more pix soon!