Katie Comes Home.

So on Saturday the fifth we settled in for a long day of nothing. Anna went to IHOP with Grammy and Poppa, and was planning on spending the whole day in town with them followed by the Pierceville Church fundraiser supper. Betsy wasn't feeling well, and I wasn't feeling well, so we just watched Netflix all day long. Round about 5 or so Betsy started to feel some contractions. We went ahead and kept watching TV and timing them.

By the time Anna made it home, we were pretty sure that Tummy was on "his" way. So Anna went home with Grammy and Poppa, and Betsy and I headed to the hospital a little after 9 PM. Here we are on the way out the door:

We got into our hospital room around ten, and settled down to wait for the green light to stay. (Dr. Koko was listed as out of town, and the nurse didn't want to call someone else before she could announce progress being made in the fear that we would get sent home. So we sat contracting and watching the food network. At about 12:30 we got formally admitted. Joe was nice enough to bring me a late supper. After that we were getting IVs set up and blood tests, and waiting for an anesthesiologist to come administer an epidural, as the contractions were definitely getting worse. They got the epidural in around 2:30 and I went to sleep around 3.

Betsy claims there was much poking and prodding and adjusting of medicines and things all through that night, but I sure don't remember any of it. Pregnant ladies and their stories. What are you going to do?

Anyhoo I got woken up by Dr. Koko's voice at about seven Sunday morning. Betsy was being poky so they went ahead and broke her water. After that things went very quickly. We watched a little TV and worked on a crossword puzzle. Sometime in the morning Betsy's bed quit working, so we had to round up a bunch of pillows so she could sit up. Linda brought me some breakfast at around 10 AM. Dr. Koko came back, changed his clothes and then we had, of all things, a baby girl. The prettiest baby girl you have ever seen. Seriously, like on TV when they have a baby and everybody is like "that doesn't look anything like a newborn baby. Newborn babies aren't that nice looking." That's how pretty she looked.

Katie didn't seem too concerned about the change. She would make a few cries and then grunt. Cry and grunt. Grunt grunt grunt. She didn't even cry much when they washed the ink off of her feet, which surprised even the veteran baby nurse. I went over to hold her hand while she got checked out.

After she went to meet mama, they put her back under the heating lamp and tried various suctioning and poking to try to get her lungs clear. She kept on grunting away. We resorted to tickling to try to get her to cry more. She preferred expressing her displeasure in a less vocal manner.

Soon enough her color improved and she stopped grunting with EVERY breath.

And once she started working the camera, I knew she was going to be just fine.

She got to go back to Mama then, where she promptly fell asleep.

Abby and Linda came straight over from church and so were her very first visitors.

They seemed pleased with her.

I got to hold her for awhile, and finally got her to stop grunting by rubbing her feet. Then Mama got to see her before the crowds really started coming. There were a lot of people to meet.
Starting, of course with big sister.

BFFs.

And Poppa Ted.

And Grammy Joan.

And Anna again.

And Joe (and Kiki!)

And Poppa Marion.

Who would have guessed I would wind up surrounded by all these pretty girls?

Chris and Shannon came by sometime too. I think I was asleep.

Later, Linda brought by a Packers duck and a Packers football so we could properly cheer on Jordy and the Packers.

Katie and Betsy and I thoroughly enjoyed the game.

Katie was so proud of Jordy and his game leading numbers.

She insisted that we order her some Packers championship gear right away.
We might just have to sign her up for season tickets so she can get the annual "you are currently 75 to the 35th power, two hundred thousand and 105th in line for season tickets." postcard.

Katie was pretty tuckered out after such a long day.

Then I went to sleep again. Katie and Betsy act like it wasn't that peaceful of a night, but I had no troubles.

The next morning Dr. Koko came by to check up on Betsy and Katie, and he said we could go home when we wanted (and when the requisite 24 hours was up.)

So we had a pretty chill morning filling out paperwork and inspecting Katie (look at her mohawk!) and resting.

I introduced her to the binky.

And then it was time to change to go home.

She clearly loves being a Lobmeyer.

And LOVES her snowsuit.

And so we brought Katie home.
Welcome home, Katie!