The Day Her World Changed

Two years ago today my sweet Ada's world was absolutely rocked.

Ada and Roxy. Not so much love at first sight.

She went from being a very happy singleton & mama's girl to a not so happy big sister. I remember feeling so torn as I tried to attend to a newborn while needing so badly to be there to comfort my crestfallen older child. I talked to a mom the other day who said the first two weeks with her second child were difficult. I thought, "the first TWO WEEKS? Try the first 8 months!" I knew that I was giving Ada a great gift--who else, in 30 years, will appreciate how weird and (hopefully) wonderful our family is, besides two siblings?

Fast forward two years. These children love each other. They are first and foremost on each other's minds and they are learning about love and family and how to behave from each other. Of course they fight and misbehave. But they also hug and kiss and show sweetness to each other in ways that make my heart leap a bit, that I really am leaving something special in this world.

Below is a picture of them playing together after Roxy's party today. Following that is the story of Roxy's birth, if you're interested.

Ada gives Roxy a lift.

Roxy's Grand Arrival (this is her birth story I sent out in an email a couple of days after Roxy was born)

Saturday morning was beautiful, fall-like... and
perfect for a little hike. We went to Stone
Mountain and 'hiked' a gentle nature trail there that
Ada loves. Then we went out for barbecue and headed
home for a nap. I got up at about 3:30 and felt like
something might be happening. But I'd felt like that
several times in the weeks prior so I didn't think to
much about it. Mom was headed down to be here in
hopes that the birth would happen sometime soon so Ada
would be with her Nana while we went to take care of
business.

At lunch after our hike. Nine hours later, I had another baby.

Mom arrived at 5:30, and I told her "Don't get too
excited, but I think you might have timed this
perfectly." The contractions were only about 7-8
minutes apart at this point, so we went to our friends
Crissie and Matt's house for dinner at 6:30. (When
Ada was born, I had contractions about 7-8 minutes
apart about 18 hours before she was born. I really
wasn't worried about being in a rush at this point.)
During dinner my contractions became pretty steady at
5 minutes apart and strong enough for me to pause. We
ate a delicious dinner and Crissie's awesome pumpkin
cheesecake and being with friends meant that that part
of my labor was really fun (perhaps not so fun for
them, but interesting, anyway).

We left around 8 because things were starting to
happen a little more quickly. Things were getting
more intense as we got home and I ran a bath and got
in the tub. Around 8:45 my contractions were 4
minutes apart and very, very strong. They started to
come a little faster and David got moving getting
everything in the car and alternately coming back to
help me through. Around that time *bang* they were
just right on top of each other. By about 9:30 I
realized that these weren't just contractions... the
baby was low and I wanted to PUSH. I told David as
much and he started to move me toward the car. This
was a slow, slow process and I'm thankful mom was here
to help me out while David got things ready, tended to
me, called our midwife Wendy (her advice: tell Lindsay NOT TO PUSH)
and propelled me toward
the car. At that point I was ready to have the baby
in the living room.

Long story short: It was both a very fast (for David)
and a very long (for me) trip to the hospital. We
left at 9:55, showed up at Piedmont's ER just after
10:20. They wheelchaired me up to delivery fast and I
got into a room at 10:28... I started pushing at 10:31
and by 10:41 was holding little Roxy. I was grinning
like a cheshire cat while I was pushing because it was
such a relief to work with my body again after
fighting it for so long. Come to think of it, I've
been smiling a whole lot since then too..."

The end result. At the time, we called her Baby Sumo.