Monday, June 14, 2010, Natalie's BIRTH Day!
I already posted on how anxious I had been for the weeks up to her Birth Day, and like I said at my last appointment I finally accepted that I was going to be pregnant for at least a couple more weeks. Well, the weekend before I had Natalie, the anxiousness returned. I kept trying to stay calm and talk myself out of all the signs that I was feeling that it could be today, but it was hard. The contractions that I was having were pretty REAL and although they were inconsistent I could tell that things were changing. Saturday we got dressed and headed out to run some errands like, Home Depot to get some last minute stuff for Natalie's room and to put together our hurricane kit, Golf Galaxy for Bryan to buy a new driver, and lunch. Well as soon as we got on the road, Audrey passed out, so instead of waking her up we decided to take a little drive downtown to let her sleep for awhile, and visit our favorite beer establishment, The Flying Saucer, for our normal Saturday lunch (which we hadn't done in weeks!). We got there and it was packed for the USA vs. England World Cup Soccer game, thankfully our friends Shad and Lauren got there before us to save us a table! We had a great time, but with Audrey on my lap the whole time and my stomach constantly tightening it was not the most comfortable couple hours! We had a lot of fun and Audrey loved cheering with the crowd!
Sunday we skipped church and got our bathing suits on and headed to my parents house for a little fun out at the pool. I didn't take any pictures, but Bryan built Audrey a little slide with the floaty mat and she just did that over and over again with either Da-da or Pappo catching her each time. We watched Da-da fish, we played with chalk, ate watermelon and did laps walking in the jacuzzi, or as Audrey called it, her pool. She had a great time swimming! The contractions kept happening and I noticed that they were getting stronger and a little closer together, but still very inconsistent, so I decided it was probably best for me to get out of the pool. I was afraid my water was going to break and I wasn't going to know that it happened! We went in for dinner, and I told my parents that I hated to eat and run, but I just wasn't feeling right and I wanted to go home and take my shower and fix my hair, in case I went into labor tonight. I was still trying to tell myself that it wasn't going to happen "today" so that I would feel less anxious. We went to bed and all was normal.
I woke up a couple times during the night with contractions and had to got to the bathroom, well at 5:45am I woke up with a contraction that tightened so much that my stomach was as hard a bowling ball I felt a little "leakage" and thought to myself, "I am not getting up again, I just went to the bathroom an hour ago." So I laid there for a couple of seconds and had a little more "leakage" so I got up and somehow made it to the toilet just in time for my water to break. I yelled at Bryan from the bathroom that my water had broke and he replied with, "Are you sure?" They had to break my water with Audrey, so I really didn't know what it felt like, but I was POSITIVE that this was my water that had broken. There was no mistaking this for anything else! Ha! So we called my mom and told her to come over to watch Audrey (who was still asleep) and we got ready, grabbed our bags and headed out the door to the Hospital!
Here I am before we left the house!
We spent an hour or so in the monitoring room where they checked me in. It was the same room and same bed as where they checked me in when I had Audrey. Actually since they were full when I had Audrey it is where I did most of my labor before my epidural, so it had lots of memories! Here I am in our room, between contractions! 
When I had Audrey I knew that I wanted to try and do as much as I can without the epidural, well with a little coaxing I ended up getting the epidural a 5cm, and let me tell you...what a difference labor is with it. Well, this time around, as much as I would have "liked" to try and do it without the epidural, I now knew how easy it was with it so I knew I was going to get it eventually. When I reached 6cm and the contractions were really starting to be unbearable and my waves of nausea started coming I decided it was time. I got the epidural and laid back and took a nap! Ha! They had me on a very low drip of Pitocin, but turned it off when Natalie's heart rate was slowing a little. When it was getting close to time to push and they put me in the stirrups Natalie's heart rate dropped into the 90's and 80's. At the same time that her heart rate dropped I got very nauseated and sweaty and my blood pressure dropped really low. They laid me on my side and both her heart rate and my blood pressure came back up, so they told me that I was going to have to push laying on my side. I thought it was weird, but they know what they are doing and they said that her heart rate was better with me on my side so we were going to try and move her down like this. I pushed a couple times and the doctor said she was coming and let's just go ahead and do this and deliver her. So I got on my back again and in the stirrups and pushed through two contractions and Natalie was born at 4:45pm! She weighed 8lbs and 1.5oz and was 21" long.I felt more emotional after she was born than Audrey, because when you are having your first child you are so overwhelmed by the whole thing so you cry. This time, with Natalie, I knew exactly why I was crying. I was crying because I KNOW (because of Audrey) the love that this little girl is going to give, and how much joy she is going to bring into our lives. I was balling very happy tears! 
My Mom, Dad and brother were waiting to come in to meet her. Marcia and then Arianne came to take over watching Audrey so my Mom could be up at the hospital while I was in labor. Marcia and Craig came up later that evening to meet sweet Natalie! Here are the family pics! (minus my sister, she was in Spain studying abroad...but I talked to her throughout the day.)
Bath time!
All clean and under the heat lamp.
Uncle Eric and Natalie
On Tuesday Bryan went home and got Audrey to bring her up to visit us and her new little sister. I was so excited and nervous for this meeting. This was the first time that we had left Audrey overnight, let alone two nights! I was not worried about her at all, since Grandma Sha was taking good care of her, but I missed her sooooo much! Anyway, here are the pictures of their meeting! (By the way their were tears in my eyes the whole time! Happy tears..of course!)
Audrey walking in the door with presents in hand!
She brought me chocolate cheerios! When I was in labor I saw a commercial for these and wanted them so bad the whole time. After I had her I told Bryan that was all I wanted! So he stopped and bought some for me and Audrey brought me a baggy full that we ended up sharing!
When she came in I had Natalie wheeled over by the bathroom and we made the meeting just about her and me at first. (I think she missed me almost as much as I missed her!) She walked in said "Mama!" It melted my heart! After a couple minutes of just "us" I asked her "Where is Baby Natalie?" I expected her to point to my belly as she has been doing for months, but instead she looked around the room..it was so cute. She saw her and just kept repeating over and over again, "Hi Nana, hi Nana!" She was so happy to see her and gave her the little pink teddy bear that she brought her. It was the sweetest thing ever! You could see the love in her eyes and she was so excited to see her Nana!
Big Sister kisses!
Now a family of FOUR!
We had some more visitors that day too. My best friends Allyson and Shannon came to visit, I just didn't get pictures (oops!). Aunt Air got some time with Baby Natalie and then the whole Attayi family made an appearance around closing time at 9pm! I love my big family and I was so happy to see that crazy bunch!
How many people can you fit in our hospital room?
Wednesday morning I was so ready to go home. I missed Audrey horribly, I hated that hospital bed, and I was ready to go home and get this family started! I was ready to get my hands dirty and start figuring out schedules. I had my game face on!
Natalie getting ready to go home!
Us with our doll!
We had a nice little Father's Day laying around the house and then went out to eat lunch for the first time as a family of four. It was such a good feeling!
Audrey doesn't look to happy here...but don't let her fool you. She was in heaven! She got a hold of the whole bowl of queso and went to town. We tried to distract her to steal it away a couple times, but we were unsuccessful. This girl LOVES her cheese!
Audrey and Abby were so cute together! Here they are singing "Ring Around the Roses!" They have grown up so fast...gosh I remember those pictures we took of them together when they were just about a month old!
Thank you Allyson for inviting us...we had a great time wishing your Mom a very Happy Birthday!
Them toasting Bryan, Shad and Javier on their "great" accomplishment!
When you finish your 200 you get a plate on the wall. Here are the guys plates...they are so proud!
