Baby Makes Six (a story of birth, and beyond)

Mommy's profile, just before heading to the hospital

Daddy samples Mommy's breakfast

Emma Katherine made her appearance Monday morning, after a scheduled induction of labor for Mommy.  The doctor ruptured the membranes at seven a.m. as planned, but nothing really happened for a while.  After being monitored for 30-40 minutes, Mommy and Daddy were able to walk around and try to get things going.  They quickly discovered that all the hallways were short, and also dead ends.  Then they found a small courtyard (maybe 100 square feet) where they walked laps and talked about a name.  They laughed at the scene, and shared the play-by-play of the experience with Uncle Bill and Aunt Marsha over email, still able to share the experience all the way in PNG.  They went back to have Baby monitored again, and were asked over and over if Mommy had eaten her breakfast yet.  Mommy didn't want to eat, but in order not to disappoint anyone, Daddy made a small dent, eating the toast and some of the potatoes.  Around 10:30, not seeing much change in contractions, the doctor ordered a slow drip of oxytocin to help move things along.  Around 11 am, labor had picked up intensity, and right at noon, just as Mommy had hoped, we were able to celebrate the miracle of Emma's birth.

While they had been walking around, Daddy and Mommy had spied a nice, quiet, and best of all, empty private room with its own courtyard.  When we inquired about a private room, it was the only one available, just at the end of the hall, away from most of the activity of the maternity ward.  Daddy went home and brought the Band of Brothers and Grandma Karen for visiting hours; while Grandma was content to hold Emma and get her dressed, and the boys enjoyed seeing their Baby Sister for the first time, approving of the name, they mostly seemed to enjoy the courtyard where they sang "Twelve Days of Christmas" and "I May Never March in the Infantry" at the top of their lungs.  Not quite 24 hours after Emma's arrival, we were able to go home on Tuesday mid-morning, after completing all the documents for Emma's birth certificate and saving us a trip to Home Affairs. 

Grandma Karen's first cuddle with Baby Emma

Emma's home in the nursery

Our Family of Six, during visiting hours

All strapped in, ready to come home from the hospital

The Welcoming Party

The boys have been quite proud of their baby sister.  They waited anxiously for visitors to be allowed to come and see Baby Emma.  Aden was thrilled to have a printed picture to take with him when he returned to school on Wednesday morning.  He got home and informed us that he had invited his whole class to come and see her sometime!  (Mommy suggested that perhaps they could meet Emma at the upcoming school concert instead.)  Noah has been full of questions, mostly "Why?" -- Why is Emma sleeping?  Why is Baby eating?  Why does he close his eyes?  Why is he awake?  Why are his fingers too big for him?  Why do we ever never change his diaper? -- for the record, we do!  (For Noah, everyone is still "he.")  Noah has also taken it upon himself to make sure Emma never goes without a hat.  Wiley has been proud to have his picture taken with his new baby sister, to get to hold her, and to gently kiss her forehead.  He has been eager to share pink balloons with Emma, and drew her a picture of baby dolls on her first day home.