A baby GIRL.
Violet Jane Hauer was born on Sunday June 9 at 10:23 am. She is named after Bill’s grandmother, her Great-Grandma, Viola and carrying on the tradition of “Jane” as the middle name for a first-born Stothard girl. She weighed 8 lbs. 0.9 oz. and was 20 inches long. Her eyes are blue. Her hair blondish brown and barely there. Her complexion English. With round chubby cheeks and a furrowed brow.
She had 13 days of extra boarding and she’s forever grateful her mama didn’t evict her any sooner. And her mama is forever thankful to Dr. Schweitzer. Willing to endure the ever-increasing uncomfortableness in hopes that I could deliver without drugs, I kept requesting “a couple more days” at each doctor’s visit. At 10 days past due date, he finally said, “I can give you 4 more days, then we will have to induce”. Even though I had resigned myself to an induction; she had her own plan which was a whole lot better. About 24 hours before I was set to go into my induction appointment, labor began.
Contractions started in the middle of the night, but they were consistently 10 minutes apart and not getting more intense, so we waited it out until morning. We left for the hospital about 8:15a with Laura following behind us. Sunday morning at Baptist East is empty. I gave both Bill and Laura instructions not to tell anyone we were headed there until the nurse checked me out — considering contractions were still only 7 minutes apart, I was convinced it was going to be a long day. Little lady had other plans. Just like with Jack, I got to the hospital already 7cm dilated. And when the on-call doctor came in and said he’d break my water (and declaring that “this ones a good size” — sigh, things not to say to someone when they are about to give birth sans drugs)…things started getting serious. I suppose the nursing team though it’d take more time, as they left the room and said they’d be back to check on us. Bill had just enough time to turn some music on and I said, I need to push. With the nurses and doctors called back in; she was in our arms in no time. Barely an hour an a half after we arrived, and some wonderful coaching from Bill and Laura, we had a baby girl to call our own.
Oh, and if you are wondering where the announcement was about this second pregnancy — you didn’t miss it. It got lost in the morning sickness times a thousand, including a fainting spell in Goodwill whilst shopping for ugly Christmas sweaters, that was the first half of my pregnancy. I don’t think I can forget the days and weeks on the couch and over the toilet — but I will choose to revel in the fact that the sickness was the blessing of a healthy baby girl.
The Hauer Family 