Most importantly, our second child, Kate Amelia Ferguson, was born into our family on June 22, 2014 at 3:19 am.
She weighed 6 lbs 13 oz and was 20.5 inches long. She was much smaller than Thomas when he was born and she didn't have as much hair. So far her hair has stayed mostly brown. She has been great. I don't know if it is because this is our second time being parents but she seems so much easier than I remember Thomas being.
Em and I were planning on Kate coming late since Thomas was so late (Thomas was 10 days late and was induced). The doctor’s visit the week before Kate was born was very standard and it didn’t look like Em’s body was progressing towards a delivary. The doctors kept assuring us that it is still really unpredictable and you never know when you can suddenly go into delivery. On June 21, we had a really buys day cleaning and preparing our house for friends to come over for a barbeque. We recently bought a house (pictures will follow) that has a lot more space than our townhome did so it is SO much more pleasant having friends over. Plus, having a grill is a first for us and we have had a hayday grilling as often as we can (grilled food just tastes better!). Em had had a couple of very minor contractions in the days leading up but we didn’t think much of them. A couple of hours before friends started coming over, Em started having stronger contractions. I remembered that they had to be really strong and really frequent to indicate actual labor so I still didn’t think much of them but Em started having a feeling that it was going to happen. She started preparing hospital bags while I was entertaining friends downstairs. Throughout the party she started having much bigger contractions where she couldn’t talk much while she was experiencing them. As friends started leaving, Em called her doctor who said that we should come in. It was hard to believe it was actually happening and we were very fortunate to have our friends help out with everything. We have good friends, the Greco’s, who just moved in down the street (they were in our last ward and also just bought their first house) that took Thomas over for a sleep over. I was a little worried how Thomas would do but he was thrilled and they said that he was perfect the whole time. Some other friends, the Stampers, helped clean up things while we prepared for our hospital trip.
When we got to the hospital they let us right in and Em’s contractions slowed way down (from every 5 min to every 15 min). We were worried that we would need to go back home but about 1 hour later they sped up again. It was around midnight that they put us in a room and the contractions started getting really painful for Em. It seemed to take a really long time for the epidural to come but once it did, she relaxed quite a bit. Overall, the labor appeared to go much smoother this time (as ‘smooth’ as giving birth can be). Emily was much more relaxed about everything, likely because it wasn’t as new. She was also really excited that she went into labor on her own, as she didn’t think it would happen. There were a couple stressful moments for her such as when the power went out (thunderstorm), or when various machines would start beeping for no apparent reason. It also didn’t help that it was the second or third day that the hospital had switched over to a new computer software that I am pretty sure they trained a total of three people on. No one (I am only partially exaggerating here…) knew how to use it. The nurses’ stress over the program made us a little nervous from time as they would say things like “this does not look right!” while staring at the computer screen. Other than that, the hospital workers were great. I was amazed again at modern medicine – epidurals especially!
When it came time to push, Em pushed for about 10 minutes and Kate was here. It was more emotional for me this time around – not quite sure why. She was such cute little girl and the first thing that came to my mind was ‘perfect.’
We got to bed around 6 or 7 am and the next couple days are kind of blurry for me. There was lots of feeding, and intermittent sleeping, and hospital food (surprisingly good). I had always figured that our daughters would not have middle names - not completely sure why, maybe since Em didn't. But while we were in the hospital we had changed our minds. Em has always loved the name Amelia but I didn't want to name our daughter that. Amelia is my grandma's name who past away last summer. I adored her and she was everything a grandma should be: loving, fun, smart, sweet, and she made you feel loved just by being around her. Despite my love for my grandma, it seemed weird to name my daughter Amelia - it just didn't seem to fit a child. My mom ended up sending me a text right after Kate was born where she described feeling like my Grandma and Grandpa (Amelia and Kay - who was equally amazing) had known her before she came to us. I told Emily about this and we decided to give her that middle name. Again, it felt 'perfect.'
Another reason to believe that my Grandpa had something to do with Kate's arrival is the fact that Wimbledon started the next day. This may not seem like a big deal, but now that I work full-time, I don't get to watch tennis as much. But since Kate came when she did, I had a whole week off to spend with my family AND watch Wimbledon matches everyday - so awesome. Grandpa Kay loved tennis.
We had our friends the Greco's and the Flores' come visit while we were in the hospital which was a lot of fun. Thomas came with the Greco's and was pretty cute. We gave him a truck (# 587 and counting) 'from' Kate which he loved and he mostly just played with that. He did hold Kate for a bit which was sweet - something I'll never forget. It was the first time all four of us were together.
Emily's mom, Laura, and her youngest sister, Liza, flew in two days after Kate was born. It was so helpful having them here. Both of them helped throughout the week, cleaning, shopping, decorating our house, and helping out with Kate and Thomas. Thomas loved both of them. We also played a lot of games, watched movies, and had a fun 4th of July party with some friends. We were sad to see them leave.
After Liza and Laura left, my mom and Loel flew into town. My mom likes to have projects when she visits and we had a lot for her to do. They helped with trimming all our bushes and trees in our front yard, removed LOTS of weeds, helped lay down new mulch, helped organize our garage, cleaned our house, etc. etc. etc. In a nut shell, they were so helpful. We haven't posted pictures of our house so I am going to do that here. This will include pictures of the yard (front, side, and back) along with the inside of our house. There aren't pictures here of our upstairs - maybe I'll do that next time I blog in two years (kidding...hopefully).
Along with the amazing help that Liza, Laura, my mom, and Loel, provided us, we have had many friends help out and many people bring us food. It made the whole process of adding another child to our family that much easier, and we cannot thank everyone enough!
