oh the joys july will bring...

we started out the month celebrating our country's freedom with friends and family at the lake house. and then topped it off with our new little girl, sophia allyson josti. we had our 37 week appointment on july 1 and didn't make it to the 38 week appointment july 8. here's the brief rundown of sophia's entrance into the world...

tuesday morning july 6
wake up and take maddie to get her cast off...then immediately go to the lake house for a morning of swimming to reward maddie for her patience through her month of wearing a cast

tuesday night after watching wipeout and laughing uncontrollably and then deadliest catch and crying we went to bed only to get up 5 minutes later because i started having contractions, severe lower back pain and cramping. we called our friends stacey and kc to come out and received instructions to head to the hospital from our dr after an hour of no relief. i started getting chills but no fever and sophie was moving around alot. so kc stayed with maddie and stacey drove us (carefully and quickly) to the hospital.

wednesday morning july 7
we arrived at the hospital at 1:30 am. at that point i was running 101.5 fever and sophie's heartrate was hovering around 200. 160 is the high end of normal. i was immediately hooked up to an IV to receive fluids and put on oxygen. but we could only get sophie's heartrate down to 185 and that was only for a short moment. next step was to confirm that i didn't have an infection so after the pleasantries of getting a catheter and having my water broken it was determined that we needed an emergency csection. i was very happy at that point (still having severe back pain and contractions) to receive a spinal and our little sweetie was born at 3 am. needless to say a little different than maddie's delivery (arrived at 6:30 am for induction - born at 11:39 pm) sophie's delivery (arrived at 1:30 am - born at 3 am).

she was having trouble breathing normally and due to risk of infection she was taken to the special care unit shortly after being born but not before we both were able to see her. oh and she didn't quite beat her sister in size but she came close...10 lbs 2 oz and 21 inches long. she spent wednesday and thursday until noon in the special care unit receiving oxygen and antibiotics. thankfully she was able to come to the room with us thursday afternoon and we received a good report on her blood count so she was able to get the IV out after 48 hours. her breathing has regulated and it seems that everything is fine as far as infection in both of us.

we decided she was ready to come into the world and was just obeying the wishes of her sister (and many others) who said "baby sophie come out" tuesday night before going to bed. maddie got to meet her little sister on friday morning and is ready for all of us to come home.

thank you to kc and tj for their help on tuesday/ wednesday watching maddie and felix until steve's parents arrived. and thank you to steve's parents for keeping maddie and felix at the lake while we've been recovering in the hospital. thanks also to stacey who was a great support during maddie's delivery and sophie's delivery. we are also thankful for the staff here at the hospital who have been amazing through this entire experience. thanks to everyone for the prayers that have carried us through to where we are and continue to bring blessings of joy. we look forward to going home tomorrow to enter into this new season as a family.

here are pics from our 4th of july celebration and our little sophia. pics from maddie's re-entry into the world of swimming post-cast will come later...

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=456176&id=810965573&l=8c2bc26695

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=455124&id=810965573&l=c71d2d2800