Josephine Mae Wilkes
I’m pleased to introduce Miss Josephine Mae Wilkes born October 12, 2014 at 12:24AM weighing 7 pounds 4 ounces and 20 inches long. It has been a busy last four weeks around here! So busy, in fact, that I didn’t get a chance to pop on the blog and let you know that our sweet, precious baby girl had arrived! I figure most of you follow along on Facebook or Instagram (@thecottagemama), so you probably saw my announcement over there and the million baby photos I’ve been posting over the last month. But we are just beyond smitten with this new little addition to our family.
Josephine arrived 2 weeks early and was born via a successful VBAC (my second VBAC…….Matilda was my only c-section). The morning of October 11th, we decided to try to get in one of our last fall traditions before baby girl arrived and headed up north to go apple picking. On our drive to the orchard I started to have some back pain, but I wasn’t sure if the back pain was anything or just part of being really pregnant. Anyway, we did our apple picking and then started driving home around noon. The back pain was still there and was getting increasingly more uncomfortable, but it definitely wasn’t contractions that I could time. I decided around 3:00 to give my Dr. a call because the intensity was getting worse and I was feeling really nauseous. Also, all my babies tend to be in the posterior position which causes a lot of back labor. He suggested I head over to the hospital so we could see what was going on.
So Brett and I headed over to the hospital, not sure what to expect. They hooked me up to all the monitors and sure enough I was having contractions, but they weren’t totally regular and some were much stronger than others. My Dr. came in a checked me and said I was dilated to 4cm and 100% effaced and because I was contracting, he decided to keep me and break my water. They gave me an epidural pretty quickly thereafter since I was doing a VBAC and, in case they needed to do a c-section, they wanted me to be all ready to go. Unfortunately, the epidural didn’t work very well. It worked for a few hours but then started to wear off and by the time I was dilated to 10cm, it had completely worn off (yikes). Luckily Miss Josephine dropped at the last minute and I was able to push her out in a short 15 mins. But wow, I give a lot of credit to those of you who had all natural labors. I won’t forget the feeling of her head coming out without that epidural. But all that pain went away when they placed my beautiful Josephine on my chest……..love at first sight!
My husband was able to take off two weeks to help out and then my mom came in from Texas for two weeks, so I had help for four full weeks. It was wonderful because it allowed me to focus on nursing, snuggling and bonding with Josephine. They are only a newborn for such a short period of time and, since this will be our last baby, I am trying to enjoy every minute (as I write this post, she is in my Moby Wrap sleeping on my chest). Is there any better feeling than a new baby sleeping on your chest? I’m pretty sure this is what heaven feels like.
I’ve been on my own with the four kids for the last several days and it’s going really well. I was pretty nervous about it, but it’s not a whole lot different than having three littles. I don’t think sewing is going to happen anytime soon, but I’m totally fine with that. I’ve enlisted the help of my mother-in-law and my college-aged babysitter to transport the girls to dance classes (we are there three days a week) for the next two months to limit Josephine’s exposure to too many people. I’ll feel better about her being out and about once she’s past 2 months old, but for now, I’m being very protective of her.
The kids have been really great with the new baby. Matilda had a few episodes of mixed emotions the first week home, but now she loves Josephine more than anyone. Caspian hasn’t shown a single sign of jealously. He just tells me how she is ‘so cute’ and likes to bring me burp cloths and tell me that she needs ‘more milk’. And Savannah just thinks she is the most beautiful thing she has ever seen. I think they will really start enjoying her when she can interact with them.
I can’t believe that Miss Josephine will be one month old tomorrow! It seems to have flown by, yet it seems like she has been part of this family forever. It took me a month to write one blog post (and several days sitting down for broken time at the computer), so as you can imagine, there won’t be a lot going on over here on the blog. I know you understand. I can’t get this time back with my littles so I’ll be back when we’ve all fallen into our new routine and when the time feels right. But for now, I’ll be off enjoying my four little angels through the end of this year.
Here are more pictures from our newborn / family shoot of Josephine when she was 1 week old. These pictures were taken by my friend, Megan Sanders, and they were all taken at our home. A big thank you to Megan for capturing this moment in our lives!
We are so excited to finally be a family of six. I feel complete and so, SO happy!
Welcome to the world, Josephine Mae!
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