3.5 Weeks New

Here's to being honest and completely real with you..

People say time flies with a newborn..but time is not flying. I feel like this has been the longest 3 weeks of my life. Am I the only one? Does that make me a bad mom? Yes, the days are all blurred together and I have no idea if today is tuesday or saturday, but it kind of feels like it's been longer. Not that Piper isn't the best thing to ever happen to us, but (very) little sleep and a big life adjustment takes time, in my opinion. We are new parents learning the ropes of parenthood. We are learning what works and what doesn't for us and for her. We are learning how to work together as parents. We are simply learning new things every day. One day goes great and we are feeling super confident and the next day we are completely off. But that is what this is all about and that is what makes this all worth it. Now I really do understand when they say that being a mom is the hardest and most rewarding job, ever. 

Jason being home with me and helping every day has been huge. I don't know what I would do without him. He has been the best help and my number one confidant when I am feeling inadequate or lost. Now although it's been a bit rough, it's also been the best ever. I mean, she really is a dream baby in our eyes. She is the sweetest and we really cannot get enough of her. When she's taking a nap I look at pictures of her and want to wake her up because I alreay miss her (even when it took me an hour to get her to sleep). When she's waking up from a nap, we race to her to be the first to pick her up. She is so yummy and is becoming more alert. She is growing every single day and she already looks so different than when we first laid eyes on her. She smiles in her sleep all the time and she loves to snuggle. So...although the newborn stage is proving to be harder than I thought, I already know that I am going to be so sad when this stage is over. She is just too sweet, but from what I heard, it just keeps getting better. 

I love being Piper's mommy and I feel so so blessed that she is mine forever.

Speaking of newborn stage..surprise surprise, my sister snapped a few shots of her when she was just over 1 week old. (it really is SO nice having a sister who is a photographer..I owe you big time jill!) I feel like we have had a photoshoot with her just about every 3 weeks for the last few months..oh wait, that's because we have. Thanks sis!

Piper's Birth Story

Piper Anne Kimball

October 5, 2013 @ 6:37pm

8lbs 6oz 21in long

Where to begin...well I'll start by saying giving birth was a LOT more intense than I could have ever imagined. It's true what people say; you really can't explain it until you've experienced it yourself. Crazy, amazing, and insane all at once. So here's how it all went down..

My original due date, being Sunday the 6th, was slowly approaching and I was doing all I could that week to induce myself and go into labor. I was walking every day, jumping on trampolines, bouncing on balls, etc. Like I've said before, I was SO over and done with being pregnant that I could barely stand it any longer. Friday (the 4th), I woke up and went on a long walk with my sister Kate and then we took her kids to the park. After that, we went to the beach and met up with my other sister Jill and her kids. We then went to the pool, got some Golden Spoon and headed home. I made Kung Pao chicken for dinner and while eating it, there was a small chili pepper in it and Jason dared me to eat it. I thought, hey, this is spicy, maybe it'll put me into labor. It was probably the spiciest thing I've ever  eaten (not sure if it really worked or not..I might never know)
It was only 8pm and I was straining to keep my eyes open. I was beyond exhausted for some reason, more than normal. (maybe it was my body's way of preparing itself?) So I went and laid in bed. Jason came into bed at around 10pm and we were talking and I all the sudden felt like I peed, but I know it wasn't pee. I ran to the bathroom and more water came out. I kept telling Jason that I promise this isn't pee, this is definitely my water breaking...and the leaking didn't stop. I started to get light contractions that progressively got stronger. Jason started to time them and they were consistently 5 minutes apart.
I called my doctor at around 11pm to tell him what was going on and what he recommended. He told me to take a shower and come to the hospital within the next hour. He said, "Looks like October 5th is going to be your day!" We were on our way and we were kind of freaking out. This was it!
We got to the hospital around 12:30am and they checked me in immediately. I was dialated to a 4 and my water had definitely broken. They put me into a room and the waiting and laboring began. Little did I know how long this was actually going to be..
So originally I had wanted to do this whole thing naturally. I wanted to see if I could handle it and really experience it all. Well..after 8 hours of laboring naturally and only progressing to a 5 within those long hours, my pain was truly unbearable and I couldn't imagine doing this any longer. I was a little disappointed in myself at first that I wasn't able to hold out any longer, but once I got that epidural, I was in heaven. Immediate relief and it was amazing. I finally was able to sleep a little bit. I labored about 11 hours after that and I am so glad I got the epidural. No way I could've done 11 more hours of that.
After 20 hours of laboring, the time FINALLY came where I was dialated to a 10 and she was low enough for me to actually get this thing going. She was really high so it took forever for her to descend. Pushing was really hard. Harder than I imagined. My epidural had worn off by then, which was actually what I wanted because I was able to push when I felt the contractions. After an hour of pushing our sweet Piper girl was born at 6:37pm. I even got to pull her out! It was intense and a moment that I will never ever forget. I have truly never felt more exhausted in my life and I even got to the point when I was pushing where I wanted to ask for them to just do a c-section and get her out of me already. Not really..but I really did think about it.
Giving birth was such an amazing and crazy experience that I honestly can't believe I actually did it. As hard as it was, it was so worth it to get our beautiful baby girl. She really is the sweetest and purest little thing and we cannot get over her. We just stare at her and kiss her all day long. It's hard believe she is actually ours. We made her!

Pre epidural..this was right before I got it. Truly unbearable.

Jason kickin back enjoying some candy...guys have it so good..

Post epidural. BEST THING EVER. Feeling good.

E x h a u s t e d.

Ice chips woohoo

Pushing begins..

Love that little dimple.

My favorite picture of them all. Love how she is staring up into my eyes for the first time. Gosh I love her.

We did it!

Welcome to the world Pipes.
We couldn't love you any more.

all pictures were taken by Jill Facer :)