She Popped!

It started as a normal day. We woke up at our normal hour to ready the kiddos for school. We ate breakfast and read scriptures. But, today we kissed them goodbye and promised them a new little sister as we dropped them a little early at the Blad’s home so that Stephen and I could go to the hospital for our scheduled inducement. I really thought I might deliver this baby early, but I was happy that I lasted until my inducement date so that I could receive the princess package (aka: epidural and pitocin simultaneously). We arrived at the hospital in time to sign several forms and then we were guided to our room and the waiting game began…when would baby #4 arrive? The delivery was flawless. The epidural was perfect. My strongest memory involving any sort of pain was that they had to give me an antibiotic in my arm and it burned badly. It was enough that I commented to Stephen: "It’s like Twilight over here." Luckily, that part lasted only a half hour. Just after school got out for the day, Baby Olena “popped” (in Dessie lingo). She was a sturdy 9 lbs, 8 oz, 21 inches with beautiful dark hair and a clear chin dimple just like her Daddy. We loved her immediately!

Enter Olena Joan Reber
We made the call to the girls and they were thrilled that Baby Olena arrived safely. Dessie was calling out: “Mommy popped! My Mommy popped.” Ella and Kayla were anxious to meet their new sister. Already, we sense that Olena is a sweet soul. The grandparents sent beautiful well wishes and Olena and I proceeded to enjoy a little quiet time after we got all cleaned up. I can’t believe we are now a six-person family.

Impressions
Ella: She is so cute! She has dark hair like I did.
Kayla: Can I hold her now?
Dessie: No, it’s my turn. I love her.
Stephen: (Holding up the baby) I think she takes after me the most.
Lauren: She reminds me of Ella, except that she isn’t crying at all.

Visitors
The girls showed up on Saturday morning to meet their new baby sister and they were enchanted with the baby. However, their interest waned when the baby started crying. At one point, I stood up to stretch my legs and the next thing I knew, my bed had been overtaken and the remote belonged to Ella who had found a Cosby marathon on TV. I did refuse to share any of the delicious food that kept on coming for me. After fasting through the delivery, I was starving. Stephen shared from his portion!

Checkout!

Our checkout day was Sunday and I was a little surprised that Stephen decided he should be with me at the hospital instead of going to church. I’m sure he thought he might be helpful. I ended up taking a picture of him taking a nap in my bed. And I had to do the girl’s hair because they looked like ragamuffins. And I had to clean up the room because they started playing with all of the flower petals. Needless to say, I was about ready to kick out my helpers. However, we did have a little family church service and I enjoyed having all four of my beautiful girls around me as we piled our family of six in the car to go home.