How I spent Christmas morning

Thanks goodness my kids are young and too little to totally understand what Christmas morning is supposed to be like because at 8:30 this morning I got the phone call we had been waiting for all week. Nicole was in labor and on her way to the hospital!!! I jumped out of bed, got dressed real fast and out the door I went. I knew there would not be much time once we got there.

At 9:15 she was 5cm and 100% effaced. At 10:30am they started putting in the epidural. At 10:50 it was finally in and at 11am the doctor came into introduce herself and ask when she was last checked to see how far she was. We said 2 hours ago and she said "ok, I will be back in a few minutes to check you again". About 10 minutes after the doc left, Nicole says to the nurse "I feel like I need to push" The nurse says "ok, I will check you but it would be amazing if you were ready" Sure enough Nicole was +2 and ready to go. The nurse called the doc and set everything up. At 11:25 am she started pushing and at 11:38am Jacob Edward was born!

I have never been present for a natural birth. I have had to c-sections with no labor what so ever, so this was a really amazing experience for me! I was so honored to be there and Nicole makes having babies look so easy. I am truly amazed. She did not scream once, no cussing, and she only threatened to kick us out of the room one time! :-) I am serious when I say that she made no noise. Had some one accidentally opened up the door to her room they would not have even known a baby was being born!

Thank you so much Nicole and Russ for letting me photograph this very special day for you.

Jacob Edward Cotten

December 25, 2009

11:38am

7# 4oz & 21 inches

Full head of red hair!

Welcome Siena Rai

I'd like everyone to meet Siena Rai.  This precious piece of work was born on February 12th at 12:38pm via c-section.  She weighed in at 4 pounds and 13 1/2 ounces and measuring 17 inches in length.  

I have no words to explain the love that I feel for this little person staring back at me.  She is truly a miracle.  She is a fighter.  Siena made it through a pregnancy where unknown to everyone, the odds were not stacked in her favor.  After being born it was discovered that the placenta and umbilical cord were abnormally small.  The normal size of a placenta is about that of a dinner plate and her was the size of a tea plate.  The umbilical cord is normally 3 feet long and her was only a foot long.  It also appeared that the cord was not totally attached to the placenta.  This would explain why the growth was not being seen in my belly.  Turns out I have what was called Inter utero growth retardation (IUGR).  Siena was not receiving all the nourishment she should have been.  

Siena is totally normal and healthy.  She checked out as a normally developed gestational 38 weeks, she is just very small.  She has a full head of dark brown hair and blue-grey eyes.  The palm of her hand is the size of a quarter.  The heart defect scare was just that, a scare, but it is what confirmed things even more that Siena needed to be out here with us, and no longer inside of me.  We are so thankful to have her here with us.

As for the rest of the Fredy's, we are all doing well.  Cole is extremely protective of his little sister, more on that to come.  Dad is doing the best he can to run the house while I sit on the couch feeling like I had an abdominal work out from hell.  But I am up and moving around.  I am slowly getting all of our pictures in order in between nursing, trying to get Cole to show me any attention at all, and attempting to get some sleep.  Onyx is wandering around wondering why we brought another one home.

More later on.  Good bye for now.  Some one needs my attention.