Sweet Caroline!

 this was on friday, we went to the store together to get food for the midwives. i was actually in labour at the time, but nobody knew. i was just extra crabby! it was the worlds longest labour, i think! sporadic all day, and i finally told patrick at supper time i thought we might be getting somewhere. David and Des came out and stayed at Jan's, and things started picking up around 11 or 12. then all night long i was stuck at the 15 min apart stage. i was texting with lar the whole night, apparently she couldnt sleep either. it was memorable! they picked up the kids around 8 the next morning, and then patrick and i went downstairs to the basement to focus. around 10 the midwives got there, and Caroline Joy came in to the world at 12.01 pm. 8 lbs, 6 oz, 19 3/4 in long. this birth was definitely very different from the rest. super long first stage, super short second stage. that's the abbreviated birth story :-). There was more bleeding than usual, but nothing our capable midwives couldn't handle. Just gave me more of an excuse for everybody to wait on me for the next week :-)
which they have!

 our very first hug

 patrick cutting the cord.

 all dried off and warmed up.

love at first sight

I make no apologies for it taking me a week to do this, i've been spending time with my baby or my other 2 babies! thank you so much my wonderful husband for your support and encouragement, and my special gift basket! thank you david and des for taking the kids so patrick and i could just worry about me and the baby. thank you mom for coming and doing, well, everything.
we will not have as many pictures this time around, but we do have, i'll try to share. things are going well, i would say perfectly, except i cant sleep. she is a perfect baby so far, eats and sleeps like a champ. i, on the other hand, take about 2 hrs to fall asleep regardless of the circumstances. so napping has not been successful, and nighttime is a nightmare, but not because of her. she's just perfect, and the kids have done such a good job with welcoming her into our family. they love to hold her, and have not shown any negative behaviour due to sharing my attention. (of course, there have been so many people around giving them attention. we'll see how it goes when we all get back to everyday life!)

next post, we'll talk about patrick's new job. he started friday, and we're really excited about it!