My Summer Baby Girl

This little girl broke my water at three in the morning.  My water had not broken prior to labor in my other two pregnancies, so I thought she was going to be super speedy.  We called my parents, my sister, and Ruth.  She and her doula headed right over.  My parents were hosting their friends who are missionaries in Spain right now.  They were going to the airport that morning, so they stopped by the house with my parents in case I was already pushing the baby out.  I'm not sure what happened...if labor was just slow or if all the visitors made me self-conscious, but my labor slowed way down.  We watched a movie, hung out and talked until the missionaries left for the airport.  Ruth and the doula rested on our bed.  She told us to walk around the block and we went around twice.  She finally told Andy and I that we'd have to go someplace private and try to speed things up through different stimulation techniques.  I'm not sure how long it took from there, but I seemed to focus and my body responded by sending strong contractions to bring this baby into the world.  I labored on my left side with my foot on Ruth's shoulder {poor woman!} and made no progress despite being fully dialated.  Yet another new experience when giving birth!  Anyway, Ruth felt around and said my cervix was too far back, so she'd have to hold onto to it while I pushed.  Oh my goodness, that was painful!!  She finally helped me by saying, "push my fingers out of there."  With that as my focus, I pushed the baby until she crowned and Ruth could let go.  I had an enormous amount of fluid with her pregnancy which was weird because I didn't gain too much weight.  She was bright reddish purple and perfect.  We took three days to fully commit to her name of Ruby {after my dad's mom} Jean {after Andy's mom}.  She has watched her older siblings every day of her life and continues to amaze us with her bravery.  She loves to cuddle, but not when she's falling asleep just like her Mama.  Ruby is a little heater...she gets hot very easily.  She likes little toys, that probably shouldn't be played with at her age, but I'm not going to keep Mr C's LEGO's put away indefinitely.  Her first year went by so fast.  She is not quick to smile, but it is so worth it when she does!