Six months ago

Six months ago today I checked in at the hospital and waited around for the staff to find a labor and delivery room for me because so many other moms were about to welcome their little ones into the world. I'd been having semi-regular contractions for a couple of days and then gone to a regular appointment that morning and found out I was 4 cm dilated and 90% effaced. I'd gone home, eaten lunch, put Ashlinn down for a nap, painted my toe nails, rocked, and counted minutes between contractions. Six hours or so later, I felt my blood pressure rising and knew I needed to go to the hospital. I'd planned to stop and get my favorite burrito before heading to the hospital because I knew they wouldn't let me eat until I'd given birth--and the last time around I'd gone 30-something hours without food, thanks to that fasting policy. But, when it really came down to it, I just wanted to get to the hospital because I was getting scared about my blood pressure rising so high.

A half-hour or so after I checked in at the hospital, I was in agony. My contractions were close together and sharper than anything I'd ever felt. I was dilated to 6 and still debating whether to take pain medications. I ended up with some systemic drugs and then an epidural later on. At 2 a.m., Carys Lorien arrived. Of course, we didn't name her until the next day, but that's another story...

I can't believe it's been 6 months. The first few months dragged by. I seriously lived in a fog of sleeplessness and chaos. Each day was an eternity, and I thought I'd never make it to this point. But here I am, 6 months into life with two little girls, and I don't know where the time went.

Tomorrow I will introduce Carys to baby oatmeal, her first "meal" of solid food. She's shown a lot of interest in our food lately, so I think she'll really like it. But we'll see.... It's hard to believe we've reached the point of offering her solids. She army crawls and sits by herself for a few seconds at a time. She has one tooth and is working on the next one. And she's recently learned how to do raspberries. She's getting to be such a big girl....