Dina Isabel

Dina was born at 10:49 a.m. on Thursday, December 13th. Exactly a week past my due date.

The good part--other than having a beautiful baby--is that the labor didn't last that long. I had my first contraction at about 6:15 that morning and they were about 8 minutes apart. By 8:00 am they were 5 minutes apart and we were on our way to the hospital. By the time we got there it was 8:45, the contractions were 3 minutes apart and I was 8 centimeters dilated. Two miserable hours later she was born.

But this labor made me appreciate just how easy I had it with Emma's birth. Apparently I'm fine delivering a 4670 gram/10lbs 3oz baby (Emma) but a 5058 grams/11 lbs (Dina) was really friggin' hard. Go figure. I didn't have the sense of well being that I had after Emma's birth, I guess it was losing so much blood and having (oof) stitches. And no drugs. A decision I regretted.

But everything about this pregnancy was hard. And almost immediately I felt so much better than I did during my entire pregnancy. I could think again, and even though I had to recover I had more energy. I cried in the car on the way home the next day because I was so relieved (I'm sure hormones had nothing to do with that) that I didn't feel... handicapped anymore. I literally felt like I had a chronic illness throughout my whole pregnancy.

Emma has been doing great with Dina. No issues to date, other than a few bouts of temper when she feels she's not getting enough attention. At least, I think that's what is upsetting her. She's 2 years and 8 months... so it could be anything. But she wants to hold Dina, and help change her and bathe her. She likes giving her kisses and stroking her face. She's really quite sweet with her.

Today is Lars' first day back to work and Emma's first day back to daycare after the holidays. As I've been writing the sleep deprivation just hit hard--and I realized I can take a nap! Zzzzzz