Baby Carolyn Elizabeth Has Arrived!

It's a girl! Carolyn Elizabeth Carney was born one week ago today on Wednesday, August 24th at 12:45 p.m. She is a big girl, weighing in at 8 lbs. 12 oz. and was 20 1/4 inches long. We were surprised she was so big - she was a week late but we were expecting a 7 1/2 to 8 lb. baby. It must have been all the ice cream I ate that last few weeks of pregnancy. Needless to say, this delivery was MUCH better. I am getting around very well and we are adjusting to life as a family of four very easily.

Johanna LOVES her baby sister and is very interested in Carolyn. She loves to hold her and can even hold her all by herself with the Boppy pillow. Johanna also loves to sing to her baby sister when she fusses and hasn't acted as jealous as I thought she would.

Overall, Carolyn is a very good baby. She resembles Johanna with some similarities but definitely looks different. She has blonder hair and a furrowed brow. She has yet to smile and sometimes has a little sour puss face when she is sleeping, but when she is alert she looks much more like Johanna did as a baby and very cute and relaxed. Right now she is content with sleeping and nursing most of the day but we are experiencing marathon nursing sessions were she is only comforted by nursing for HOURS at a time. This makes for a tired and worn out mommy and daddy but we know this soon shall pass.

I ended up being induced because she was a week late, and was only in labor for less than four hours. I guess I have babies pretty quickly! I decided not be smarter this time about pain relief and did not wait until the very last minute to get an epidural. This time there was no scary heart rate drop or other interventions. I actually had them cut my epidural in half because I got panicked when I couldn't feel the lower half of my body. I hated not being able to move my body. I was having quite a bit of pain toward to the end, but I could feel when I needed to push and could actually feel the baby being delivered. I really liked this combination of some pain relief but also some sensation.

Here are some pictures of Carolyn's first few hours and days of life. I have also taken some cute videos and will be snapping more photos in the days to come. Having two kids is definitely different. It is hard to get anything done but hopefully we will be in a routine very soon. I am staying at home full time until January and then I go back to my job at the library part time. It will be a fun time to be off of work - Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas all at home with my babes.