Sorry...and pics!

Sorry bloggy pals..I'd like to say that I've been in baby-heaven and therefore too busy to post...but the truth is, I'm sleep deprived, busy and fuzzy-headed from allergies that make me want to stab myself in the head...but baby-heaven sounds better. So I think I'll stick with that. Yeah.
Speaking of baby-heaven...
Flippin' cute! Also cute, Isaiah just pointed to her pic and excitedly proclaimed, "Babbigail!'' I vote that her nickname should be Babbie.


She's cute. And sweet. And cute. Did I mention cute? 'Cause she is.

AM NOT!

I was challenged by the awesomeness that is My Man. So here we are.
What the heck am I talking about you might wonder?
Well...yesterday was a wonderful day (aside from being the day Earth was graced with my presence for the first time..) We went outside and washed the cars, and just spent time together. The kids had a great time washing the cars and getting wet.
Afterwards, they stayed to play outside with Justin, and after not too long he brings them in covered in muddy water. Normal stuff.
Until he tells me that they were all laying face down in the puddle at the end of the drive. Drinking the puddle water. Yes really. Driveway puddle water people.
He didn't think I was brave enough to post that.
Well. Apparently he doesn't remember this post.
If anything, it's probably good for their immune systems.

Things that make you go...what?

Notice the time people. I know I'd probably be awake with the baby anyways, but this is a much more interesting story.

Imagine with me a moment.
The normal quiet and faint snoring from various little people that graces our home at 230 flippin' am. When suddenly I hear several loud thumps.
"What the heck was that?" says I to Justin, and then we both see our roomie 'R' in the hallway hollering, "THERE'S A BAT IN THE HOUSE!"
...

...

...

I know it's the middle of the night, but I'd like to think I can still hear.
A bat?

Yes. A bat. As in yucky little thingies that fly around at night and ...well are yucky.
So. Justin gets up to valiantly help encourage the bat to leave our house. We're hospitable folks, but no bats allowed okay? I briefly considered getting up to help him with said bat-removal, but decided against it for 2 reasons:
1. Hello? It's a flippin' BAT.
2. Well, I really only had one reason. But 2 sounded better. I just didn't wanna 'cause bats are yucky.
About 30 minutes later, my hero comes back to bed to proudly tell his bat-banishing story, which involved lots of blanket flappin' and running like a scared little girl. (His words, not mine, I think he's all man baby)
His closing words?
"Are you wide awake?"
"Yes" says I
"Good" he says, handing me my laptop, "Start blogging"

*sigh*

that's a sigh of pure contentment! Ahhhh. Life is good! Of course it was good before...but there is just something about that ''babymoon'' isn't there? I just love snuggling my newest blessing! She's such a joy, just like the rest of my brood.
And my kids think she hangs the moon! No jealousy here, but actually, that's never been an issue with any of our births. Each of them has a different response to her, but it's all positive. Amanda begs to hold her. All.the.time. Seriously. If I didn't have to feed her, I'd probably never get a chance at her LOL. Stephanie loves to kiss her. We're working in gentle. She tends to be rough LOL. Wesley calls her ''my baby'' and constantly looks for her, checks on her, asks if she's okay. Just like a little man! Taking care of his sister. Isaiah just looks at her and smiles. Heaven!
And Justin has been the awesomest. He has been working so hard! Caring for the kids, keeping the house up, doing projects that have been needing to be done. Add his mom to the mix too. She's in the process of moving here, and he has been serving her tirelessly as well. He is the definition of husband/servanthood.

²²Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. ²³For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. ²⁴Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

²⁵Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her ²⁶to make her holy, cleansing^b]">[b] her by the washing with water through the word, ²⁷and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. ²⁸In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. ²⁹After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church— ³⁰for we are members of his body. ³¹"For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh."^c]">[c] ³²This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. ³³However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. Ephesians 5:22-33

Yep. He's awesome.

So yeah. Life is good. I've found this time around, that having Abigail gives me even more appreciation for my other children. I love them all so, and watching them love on thier new sister is very dear.

Ummm...this post got rather sappy LOL. But, I can blame post-partum hormones right? =P

more pictures!!

Yes. She has huge feet. LOL

Leave me alone Mom. I'm tired.

The girls and their new sister.

The most beautiful Abigail ever!

The craziest birth ever!

Well. She has arrived! Abigail was born at 10:50pm, 6lbs 4 oz. She is so beautiful. So so wonderful! (Pics tomorrow, I promise)
The birth was crazy. You already know the crazy early start/stop labor....
Well this afternoon, things got regular, and stayed regular. And ouchy LOL.
I ate little dinner, and went upstairs to labor alone for awhile. After the kids went down, I asked Justin to come be with me, it was getting harder and harder to cope.
Sometime after 8, we decided it was time. They had dropped to 3 minutes apart and were getting very strong.
Thankfully, the hospital is literally a minute from our house LOL. So I sat on the floor and leaned over the seat riding there. I still felt remarkably good between contractions...so much so that I was able to almost forget that I was in labor.
After some observation and whatnot, my midwife arrived and checked me out. I was about 6cm dilated and she asked me how long I usually take to go from there. I replied, "2, maybe 3 hours?"
uhhh...yeah.
We get into the room about 10-ish. About half and hour later, I'm in transition. Full-blown transition and already starting to feel pushy.
The poor nurse. She was so kind. She really respected our desire for no intervention and little pestering. Just wonderful! But she did come in to get a saline lock started, in case of emergency. Fine says I...however my body took over and the poor nurse tried, but just couldn't get me to hold still or relax long enough to get it in. I felt so bad!!
My midwife came in, took a look at me and said, "Hmm. I think I'll go get some scrubs" =P
I got into bed and immediately started bearing down.
Justin calls my pushing phase, my ''Braveheart face" LOL. My body seriously takes over and there's no stopping me. I'm a growling, hollering, full-blown mess!
The poor nurse is telling me not to push because no one is in there! They've barely had time to get ready, remember we'd been there less than 2 hours total.
Midwife comes in and I'm only a couple pushes away from crowning. Holy crap that hurts. As an aside, at bible study on tuesday a couple of the girls who have one child were asking me if labor/delivery gets easier with more children.
NO.
Different yes, easier, no. LOL!!
Anyhoo. She crowns and everyone is hollering at me to wait! I'm trying. She slid right out and they gave her to me immediately. And tears of joy and thanksgiving for God's blessing flowed freely! Oh Lord how worth it she is! Justin and I are both blubbering messes, I'm sobbing and snuggling. She's so beautiful! My beloved kissed me and told me how proud he was of me. I'm proud of him! He's so amazing. After 5 babies and 5 delieveries he knows just how to coach me and take care of me. He knows just how to encourage me. He's a wonderful man and I'm so glad to have him.
After some snuggles and Momma's milk, I gave her up to get weighed and what not. 6lbs 4oz. One oz less than I guessed! I think I'm getting good =P
For those who know us IRL, and know were we delievered, I can not recommend it highly enough! I have delievered in 4 different hospitals, and by far this was the best! The nurse gave me as much time as I wanted with her before weighing her, and in fact, never asked for her, she waited until I offered. They were so patient and respectful. My midwife is fabulous!
Every moment of pain and suffering to bring her forth was worth it. I hurt. And I'm tired. But God has blessed us so much and I would do it all again right now for her.
....
Pics soon!!

Hey everyone, this is Justin. It is rather difficult to type with the fingers that Sandy has been squeezing so you will have to forgive me for any misspelled words. We are in the hospital now and Sandy is doing great. I think we will have a new little girlie here in a few hours. Just as a side bar, this is the first time we have been able to see the same midwife that she has seen throughout the pregnancy with any of our children. We'll keep you posted...

finally??

Well...since I last updated, yesterday, the contractions were pretty much non-exsistent all that day. Last night, I had irregular, painful contractions but was able to doze between them.
all day today I've been laboring. Fairly regular, and finally in the last couple of hours they've gotten pretty steady.
I know I've made progress dilation wise.
I'm hoping they keep up and we can go in tonight after the littles go to bed and have us a baby!!

....

don't get too excited though. You never know and this baby seems determined to do things her way LOL

Morning!!

After a long night of hard labor, I'm still here with no baby. Frustrating!
Contractions got all way down to 5 minutes apart. I labored for hours and then it just stopped.
*sigh* I know I'm making progress, but this little one seems determined to make me crazy! =P
My body has never stopped hard labor before. Never! With all the others, once I hit hard labor, that's it ya know?
Anyhoo. Justin went ahead and started his leave. For which I am very grateful, as I'm exhausted and I hurt.
If hard labor starts up again, we will most likely just go in to the hospital. I wanted to labor at home as long as possible, but my body can't do much more of this start and stop dealio.
I'm so grateful for all the encouragement and prayers. =)

The last few have been 4/5 minutes apart! Very encouraging! YAY PAIN! Lol.

I think we're in business?

After a long weekend...I think we're finally in business.
Really, after this many littles, you'd think it would be easier to tell, but really, this baby has determined to shake things up and NOT follow my ''pattern'' at all.
Usually I start contracting and have early labor for 2-3 days, then hit active labor and then have a baby quickly. It's been that way for all of them.
This time, I started contracting mildly on friday, only to have them fizzle out every.day. Very annoying.
Today they picked up quite a bit pain wise, and were even 5 minutes apart before bible study, spacing out to 10.
Then yet again, they fizzled out.
Yesterday at my mw appt, I had to roll way over for a heartbeat and she noticed that she was rather posterior (that means her back is against my back for anyone that doesn't know). I did some research and saw that that can cause labor to start and stop and not really do much.
So I assumed some silly postitions to get her to turn around. She must have, 'cause even though they are still about 7 minutes apart, they HURT.
So. We'll see where we are in a few hours. I really hope and pray they don't fizzle out. I'm tired and ready for my little one to come!