Princess
Today I will write about our little princess. I wrote entries about both the boys and started this one but it never left the draft folder. I guess sometimes there is so much to say it just stays in a jumble until you can really sit and let it flow.
Princess a common blog name for little girls and in actuality my husband calls her the Viking Princess. That is more accurate in many ways but I didn't want to make it my title for her introduction.
My husband is of Norwegien descent and therefore the Viking reference. She is so very girly and princess-like and yet so rough and tumble right along with the boys. I'm glad for both sides of the equation. I am just asking the Lord for wisdom for how to teach her the correct timing for each:)
Viking Princess was born almost exactly 5 years ago. (Her birthday is just coming up at the end of the month) She was and is a precious gift from God that I wasn't sure was going to 'happen'. Hubby was pretty much content with the 2 boys and for 4 long years was unwilling to consider having another baby. There are two special 'babies' that helped change his heart, one was his sisters little girl and the other was a dear friend's son who was so adorable as a baby and so loveable. I could see whenever Hubby would hold these little ones something was softening in his heart.
Soon after he told me that he was ready to have our little girl. We 'tried' for 4months to get pregnant...I know that in actuality that is a such a short amount of time. But at the time it was forever. You have to understand, we conceived Monkey Boy 2 months after marriage (literally days after getting off the pill) and Action Boy was a surprise, conceived immediately after I was done nursing #1. So four months was like 4 years to my mind, not to mention it was time added onto the desire that I had already had for at least 3 years!
The pregnancy was soo different than with the boys. She was very active and constantly sitting low in my pelvis. It was uncomfortable to stand for long periods of time and I spent a LOT of the last few months in the tub. I taught the boys(5 & 7) how to do chores during this time (so glad I did) and created a regular bedtime, mealtime, etc in preparation for the baby's arrival. I spent a lot of time sitting and sewing (and watching TV) it was a very restful pregnancy. (with the boys I was active and feeling pretty normal and good till the last month or so)
I was planning on giving birth at home (like with the boys) and my plan was to have my Mom there and also 2 of my very close friends. My mom was on staff at YWAM Chico at the time so it was tricky making sure she could be here. I was having a lot of preliminary labor and one afternoon my contractions were coming about 5 minutes apart fairly regularly so Mom got her things together and began the drive (7hrs). I called my two friends and they came over to be with me. By evening everyone set up camp around the house to wait for hard labor and eventually fell asleep. Around midnight I began to realize that my fears were coming true. Labor was 'going away'. The contractions subsided and I lay there in my bed silently weeping, nothing was happening!
My friends went home the next day and promised to be back when the real thing happened. My mom was optimistic and figured the baby would come by the time the week was up and all was well. One day passed and then two. Still no labor. Always many contractions but nothing 'real'. By the end of the week I was so emotionally spent. I couldn't believe it, but the baby hadn't come and my mom's vacation time was up. She had to go and now there was no chance of her being here for the baby's birth because she had no more vacation time.
Real labor didn't happen until a full week later. (2 weeks after my false alarm) My dear friends (Mintflower is one of them;) were here with me in my home and my wonderful husband. My mom had also left behind my wonderful younger sister Leah who is a born doula (she was only 16 at the time) which was such a blessing. I realized that for me having my Mom there during my birth was actually causing me to have more faith in her presence than in God's. It really caused me to seek him harder and lean more heavily into his everlasting arms knowing that she wasn't going to be there.
Labor was very short, only about 3 hours from start to finish. My friends were wonderful. Mintflower was always encouraging me and giving me strength in her quiet way. At one point during labor my husband laid his hands on my belly and said a lovely prayer, welcoming our child into this family and out into the world. Only minutes later I went into transition and very shortly thereafter she was leaping out into the world. I say leaping because she actually pushed on the top of my uterus with her foot to help herself out on that last contraction. It was the weirdest sensation!! But she was anxious to meet her Daddy!!
Upon birth my gracious friend wrapped her immediately in a blanket with looking to see the gender. After all the sighs and oohs and ahhs while we took in the sight of this little person she said, "Well, do you want to know if it's a boy or a girl?"
It was the strangest thing...I hadn't even really thought about that yet:) She had just been laying there not crying at all. Just looking around at everyone...like she was greeting us all and saying to herself, "so these are the faces that go with those voices I know so well."
My lovely friend, opened up the blanket and we all saw that indeed we had been given a daughter. Oh what a blessed moment. My friend was beside herself with joy, having prayed for over a year for God to give me a little girl.
I will always have her image imprinted in my mind as I lay next to her that night trying to fall asleep. She was so tiny in her little layette and wrapped tightly like a baby burrito. (thanks to Mintflower, I had never heard of swaddling and Viking Princess really liked it) She wore her tiny little green and white striped hat (no pink yet;) and lay there sleeping soundly. I couldn't keep my eyes off of her. Every few seconds I would open my eyes again and just peer over at her like perhaps it had all been a dream...But it wasn't. God is so good, he had given me the desire of my heart and here she was.
• Apr. 14, 2007 - Untitled Comment