Isaiah "playing" with a toy....

Isaiah hanging out with the "big kids" while they play games...

I wanted to write a little bit about Isaiah's entrance into this world before I forgot too much. It's funny how you think you will never forget a single detail, but after four kids, I am finding that I can't remember which detail went with which birth! I feel like Isaiah's arrival was very telling about how these first couple of weeks would go, and possibly the rest of his childhood! It seems that he entered this world in somewhat of a flurry (literally during a snowstorm!) and has become part of our every day busyness without a whole lot of thought, planning, or deciding....he really just fits right in and goes with the flow! I had awful tooth pain all day Sunday, the 9th, and it got worse throughout the night. I knew Isaiah would be here relatively soon, and didn't want to risk the tooth pain getting worse, or needing to have something done with a newborn baby, so I made an appointment that Monday and ended up with 2 root canals and 3 1/2 hours in the dentist chair! I'm not sure if that can induce labor (and I wouldn't recommend it as a good method!) but I started labor contractions around 4 that next morning. They were pretty regular and pretty painful for about 3 hours, long enough that I had called my mom to let her know I thought I was in labor and we had called the on-call midwife. I took a shower and packed a bag, just in case! My mom was certain enough that I was in labor, that she packed a bag and headed here from Bend. Then, the contractions just stopped. This hadn't happened with any of the girls' labors, but we waited another hour and nothing. So, Joe headed into work, and I took Clara to her dentist appointment to have a couple cavities filled. Our good friend, Dr. Nolan, is her dentist, and he actually had the car seat that Isaiah is using out in his car that day, so we left with 4 car seats installed and ready! I had a babysitter for the younger girls that morning, our sweet friend Katie, and she offered to stay for the afternoon with all 3 girls. What a blessing!! I was able to go to the grocery store and stock up for the week of dinners and stop by the midwife clinic and have a non-stress test on Isaiah to make sure he was still doing fine after the contractions that morning. Everything looked great, and I had a few small contractions again during that appointment. I got back home around 3:00 and my mom and Julie arrived shortly after that. Isaiah must have been waiting for Nana to get there, because within a 1/2 hour, I was having painful contractions again! They stayed pretty consistent for the next couple of hours, but looking back at my text messages with Kate, I was still not sure if it was really progressing at 5:30 that evening. By 6:00, though, Joe called from work, and I told him to come right home. He walked in the door, and within 10 minutes, we were grabbing bags and heading to the hospital! We got to the hospital at 6:30 and by 7:15, I was ready to push. I had an amazing midwife, incredible nurse, and a husband who couldn't have been better! I really think the midwife and Joe worked almost as hard as I did, trying to help relieve my back pain. It took another 2 hours of pushing, but Isaiah eventually arrived at 9:17 that evening. I had been trying to decide if I should have another scheduled c-section or attempt labor again, and really didn't want to make that decision. I didn't want to do anything risky, but no one could give me an answer on what was the "safest" way or the best way for me to deliver this baby. I was so thankful that I never had to make that decision because Isaiah decided to show up 3 weeks early, not really give me much time to think about anything, and arrived just how he wanted to :)
My first trip out the door with all 4 kids was a similar story. I was taking Isaiah to a doctor's appointment, and Joe was going to meet me there. Clara had decided to come with me, so we got ready and were about to head out to the car. Then Eliza came running up, sobbing that she wanted to go too. She had been needing a little more attention with the addition of a baby, so I got her ready quickly and started heading out the door again. Then Hannah came running to the door in her underwear, yelling that she changed her mind and was coming too! I got to the car and realized that all the car seats were in the garage because my mom had used the car to move something, so I hurriedly put all 4 carseats back in the car, buckled seatbelts, and it wasn't until I was on the freeway to the pediatrician's office, that I realized "I have all 4 kids in the car!" I have a feeling Isaiah's experience is going to continue to be somewhat crazy and hurried, without much time for thought or planning, but hopefully our little guy will continue to go with the flow and keep his easygoing personality!