Samantha's First Visitors

We enjoyed a really nice visit with my parents over the weekend. We were excited for Samantha to get to meet her Grandparents for the first time. We weren't able to get out and do much, but we did go out to eat and take my parents on a little tour of post. We also hit the PX and the Ft. Lewis museum. It was nice to know that if Samantha hadn't done well on the outings, we had 4 adults to try to soothe her instead of just Pat and me. Luckily, Sammy was a champ! She spent most of the outings sleeping. If she happened to wake up, all I had to do was feed her to keep her quiet and happy.

Speaking of feeding her, after a slow start, Samantha is now gaining weight well. At her lowest, she had dropped to 7 lbs, 6 oz. A week ago, she was back up to 7 lbs, 10.5 oz. I was a little nervous when I took her to get weighed yesterday (it's hard to tell how much milk she's actually getting during each feeding), but she weighed in at a whopping 8 lbs, 3 oz! It makes some of the marathon nursing sessions we've had totally worth it!

I was planning on posting a family picture that I had my Dad take, but when I downloaded them to the computer I was shocked to see just how sleep deprived Pat and I look in them. So much for using it for the Christmas cards this year! We'll try again after a good night's sleep. For now, you'll have to settle for the family minus Mommy.

Taking a Walk

We decided to bundle Samantha up in her stroller yesterday and take her for a walk around the neighborhood. It was nice to get out and get some fresh air. She stayed awake the whole time, but she definitely looked perplexed by the whole situation.

Samantha's Birth Story

So much for first time labors lasting a while! I had some cramping off and on all evening on the 6th, but didn't really think much of it. I went to bed like normal and slept until about 2:30. I was in complete denial that I was actually in labor. My contractions were about 7 minutes apart, and I decided to do anything I could to slow them down, assuming it was false labor. I got in the tub for a while, drank a big glass of water, and laid down on my left side. No dice. Finally, around 5:00, I decided I better wake up Pat and call the midwife and my doula.

The doula was going to come over to the house to help decide when we should head to birth center, and then we were going to check back in with the midwife. Before my doula got to the house, my water broke, and the contractions got really intense. We called everybody back and told them just to head straight to the birth center.

The car ride to the birth center was awful. I was already fighting the urge to push. When we got to the birth center, I was fully dialated already, so they put me straight into the tub. Pushing only lasted about 35 mintues. The cord was around her neck and her little hand was by her face as she came out, so the midwife was amazed that it all went so quickly. Labor only took about 6 hours total. It was painful and intense, but totally worth it now that we're home with our sweet baby girl.

Introducing Samantha Marie Vogt!

Samantha was born at 8:04 AM on October 7th. She weighed in at 7 lb 13 oz and was 20 inches long. Her entire birth took less than 6 hours. I was worried that we weren't going to get to the birth center in time! Pat got us there safely, and now we're all at home doing well.

We don't have a ton of pictures yet, but I wanted to post a couple. We'll work on getting some more up here over the next few days as we (hopefully!) settle into a routine.

The first three were taken at the birth center right before we headed home. The last one is from today.