Elizabeth Margaret Ledet

Our family was blessed with our little girl Saturday, September 22 at 12:04 pm.  Elizabeth weighed in at 7 lbs, 7 oz and measured 19 1/2 inches long.

  

Her birth story began around 1:00 in the morning on Saturday.  I woke up with the worst back pain, it felt like my back was literally breaking in half.  Patrick had fallen asleep with William, so I thought I'd let him sleep and wake him later if things started happening.  I started watching the clock, trying to gauge how frequent these back pains were.  My stomach was doing it regular tightening thing along with the back pain, but I'd been having so many Braxton Hicks contractions that I wasn't sure if it was the real thing.  I could not sleep.  I went into the den and watched a couple of On Demand episodes of Royal Pains to catch up with the season.  I was still timing things, and in the back of my mind I was thinking "I'll wake up Patrick at 5:00 if things are still going like this."  The contractions weren't terribly consistent, they'd go from 15 to 7 or 8 minutes apart, then slack off for a little while.  Around 5:00 I ended up taking a bath then laid back in bed and actually got about an hour of sleep.  When Patrick woke up around 7:00 I let him know what was going on and he asked if I wanted to go to the hospital.  I still doubted that I was really in labor and decided to time the next set of contractions, then we'd make a decision.  I knew that if I went in they wouldn't send me home because I was already 4cm as of Wednesday, so I wanted to be sure that I was in labor before I went in.  It ended up being about 20 minutes before another contraction, so I gave Patrick the go ahead to go into work for a few hours to get some things done.  

When William woke up he wanted doughnuts, so off to Mary Lee we went.  As soon as we sat down with our doughnuts the contractions picked up in frequency and intensity, as in every 5 minutes.  I did my best to patiently hurry William with his doughnuts, then called Patrick to come home as soon as we got in the car.  On his way home, Patrick started making phone calls to make plans for William.  I called my mom and the doctor, and thankfully my doctor happened to be the one on call.  When Patrick got home I was wandering around the house, barely able to stand up and trying to focus on packing a bag.  We were not the most prepared.  We brought William to the neighbor and it was all I could do to not lose it telling him goodbye. 

 

We got to the hospital around 10:00 and there were a few other people waiting in the assessment center.  The nurse came out, asked who was first, then looked at me and asked everybody if it was okay for me to go back because I looked like I was in pain.  They quickly checked me and I was at 8cm.  From then on it was quite hectic getting me checked in and up to a room.  I told them I wanted an epidural, so we had to get things processed before that could happen.  When they wheeled me into the labor and delivery room, I looked at one of the nurses and recognized her as the same nurse from William's delivery.  When I mentioned the coincidence, she switched with another nurse to stay on my case.  She is awesome and I'm so thankful I had her with me again.  Again, lots of organized chaos getting everything ready but the anesthesiologist and nurse anesthetist made it with the meds.  I was so far along it took several combinations to get the pain to go away - I wanted none! By the time that was finished Dr. Gautreau was back to break my water and I was ready to push.  Patrick was texting the family with the play by play and my mom made it in time to bring me my grandma's rosary to hold.  Two pushes with the nurse and one with Dr.Gautreau and our baby girl was born at 12:04.  It had been a whirlwind 2 hours. 

 

 I kept saying I wanted the "drama" of going into labor on my own and I got just enough.  We spent our 2 nights in the hospital then headed to Thibodaux for a few days because our house was a wreck with the construction.  We came home Wednesday and all are doing great, adjusting to being a family of 4, and very thankful for the help from our families.  We are blessed.  

Making Progress

I think we've made enough progress in the bathroom to justify a blog update.  But first, here's a picture of the little guy helping Daddy with cleanup after Isaac.  The news kept predicting a storm that would affect BR like Gustave did (thankfully this was not the case), so I tried my best to get myself mentally prepared.  However, after about 20 hours without power my psyche was cracking.  Thankfully our power was restored after about 24 hours while we were making plans to get out of town. 
William is obsessed with all things Apple.  I have to really limit his iphone/ipad time!  His favorites are youtube videos (kid-friendly) and the PBS kids app.

Onto the bathroom:  William's room no longer has a door that enters the bathroom.  The sheetrock finishers are working on floating/texturing the walls.  As soon as the construction is finished the changing table will be moved to Elizabeth's room.

The bathroom is officially two rooms.  The picture below is looking into the closet/laundry.  I had my first freak out today when I thought I no longer had a receptacle for the washer/dryer.  Thankfully I just didn't notice the extension cord hanging from the wall!  A pocket door will go in the metal slot on the left.

Another view of the laundry/closet.  See the white extension cord?  Now I do, too.  We've decided to stack our new washer/dryer to maximize closet space.

This is looking from the laundry/closet into the bathroom.  The unsheetrocked portion is for the shower, and the vanity is adjacent to that on the left.  Plumbing for that has been "roughed in".

The tub, which should arrive tomorrow, will go in this general area under the window.  We can't do the plumbing for that until the tub is actually here because it's a clawfoot tub and the pipes will show.

This is the corner for the toilet.  We'll have a cabinet over the toilet for more storage.

And in the meantime, this is what the nursery looks like!  Everything from my closet is either in this tiny closet, on the bed, or in big black garbage bags.

And this is our front room where the rest of the materials are being stored. 

We have about 3 1/2 weeks until my due date.  I'd love for things to be finished a good week or so before that because I would like to be able to get the nursery cleaned and set up.  The bedding is being made right now.  I've started the weekly doctor appointments, and had a sonogram yesterday.  Elizabeth looks good, weighs about 6 lb 2 oz and has a good amount of hair according to the tech.  Things are starting to progress, but hopefully everything will go at a nice, slow, steady pace for the next few weeks.  It's kinda hard not to laugh at the doctor when she tells me to get out the carseat and pack my bag.  If I only knew where my bags were!!!