Baby Beatrix

I spent the past nine months making a baby!  Introducing Beatrix Dot Woestman.

I wanted to do things a little different this time around so I didn't post on any social media that I was pregnant.  I'm not sure exactly why, I just felt a little more private about this baby and it felt right not to share.  Now that she is here I'm dying to show everyone how cute she is.  Here is her first selfie, we took it while hanging out at the hospital after she was born.

Another thing I wanted to do differently was labor and delivery.  A home birth was on my mind but it would have been very difficult here in Japan.  The base does not do them, so I would have had to find my own Japanese midwife and then deal with all the insurance and citizenship info because she would have been born off the US base.  Bob also did not like the idea.  So instead of pursuing that Beatrix was born at the hospital but with as little medical help as possible.  I saw a midwife throughout my pregnancy and had a completely drug free delivery.  Which was a first for me.

It actually went really smooth.  I woke up to my first contraction at six am Saturday morning.  I was unsure but Bob decided to come home from work pretty much right when he got to work (he left just before six).  A friend came over and babysat all day.  The kids were so excited for me to have the baby and for the babysitter to come over.  We got to the hospital around nine, and Beatrix was born at 11:30 am.  She came just a couple days after her due date and on the one day I had plans to go to a concert, but that was ok.  It was actually really nice to have a baby over the weekend.  The hospital was empty.

The kids all got to come to meet her on Sunday morning on their way to church.  It was such a precious moment.  Everyone was so excited.

Our hospital stay was just fine.  I prefer our old not Naval hospital.  It was strange having young naval corpsman guys do a lot of what I was used to a nurse doing.  It really seemed like they didn't want to be there and could care less about this job they were doing.  Not a big deal though.

Beatrix and I didn't have any complications and I felt like we were ready to go home just an hour or so after birth.  Unfortunately we had to stay the full 24 hours, which is just a pain because they keep coming in what felt like every minute to take our temperature and blood pressure etc.

When it was time to go Beatrix was not happy to get buckled into her carseat.  But once she was all settled she did great and didn't mind it at all.  We haven't gone in the car since but I'm hoping she will like to ride around.

I took these sweet pictures of her when she was only two days old.  Right now she is pretty much just a sleepy little squish ball who loves to be held fed and wrapped up tight and I love it.