New member to the family

We are pleased to announce the arrival of the newest member of our family, Blakeley May Gardner on July 19, 2008. As our due date was quickly approaching, Ellie was getting more and more excited about being a "Big" sister. She has been telling us for quite awhile now that she is a big sister and stands very tall to show us how big she is. She was also insistent that, "It's a GIRL!"

Jill's due date was on Friday, July 18th. She had been having contractions the previous night and into the morning but things stopped throughout the day. Then the contractions started up again around 7pm. Coby had left with the Ewart's up to Tumwater (Olympia) for a soccer tournament. Derek and the girls took turns holding Jill's hand, helping her to breathe and timing the contractions as they started to get harder. The girls were a really big help. Finally about 10:30pm we decided that we needed to head to the hospital. We called Bud Mackey to come over and help Derek give Jill a blessing and then we were off.

When we got to the hospital, Jill needed a wheelchair to get in. She tried walking but the contractions were to painful and a kind lady saw us and ran and got us a wheelchair. I wheeled Jill up to the Labor and Delivery wing of the hospital. It was now 11pm. The nurse asked us to sign a waiver form but Jill's first question to the nurse was if they bill from midnight to midnight. She said yes and Jill, being the frugal person that she is (her dad would be sooo proud), said that she could wait until midnight to check in. Both Derek and the nurse thought this was a bad idea but she was insistent that she could hold out and that she didn't want to pay for a day when she only got an hour, even if the insurance was covering it. Derek reluctantly wheeled Jill back into the waiting room to wait for the bewitching hour to arrive. The hospital was very helpful by allowing us to get all the paperwork done during this time.

Finally after a long wait and many a contraction, the nurse came to tell us that the anticipated moment had arrived. They had a room all ready for us and we quickly got Jill in and changed into her lovely gown. (Which really didn't cover much from the back!) The nurse got her hooked up to the monitoring devices and checked her cervix. She was dialated to a 6. Good, plenty of time. Jill asked if she could get into the whirlpool tub that they have in each of the rooms. The nurse said fine once she got hooked up to an IV. She got that taken care of and started the water so she could get in. About that time, Jill's water broke. The nurse checked and saw that she was now dialated to a 9. She quickly ran out to get the doctor that was on call that night. By the time she got back, Jill was feeling the urge to push. The doctor asked her to try and wait so she could check her but that wasn't going to happen. Jill gave one push and out she came. The time was now 12:55am, less than an hour after Jill and decided to check in. It had only taken about 5 minutes from the time Jill's water broke to the point she delivered. Derek is very glad that they were not still out in the waiting room when her water broke. We really cut it pretty close this time. Jill was very disappointed that she didn't get to take that whirlpool bath.

The transaction for Blakeley was probably a little too quick. She was quite blue when she was first born. They moved her over to another table to get her to "pink" up a little bit while they checked her over. They found that she was having a little trouble oxygenating herself. When she would cry, the numbers would look normal but when she stopped, the numbers would go down. They decided to move her to another room where they had better equipment. After she warmed up a bit, she seemed to be doing better. They have several nurses and the ped doctor on call all look at her but everything seemed normal so after an hour or so, Derek and Blakeley came back into the room with Jill.

Derek caught a few winks at the hospital and then headed home to check on the kids. After a couple hours of sleep at home. Derek brought the girls over to the hospital so they could see their new baby sister.

They were all pretty excited about their new little sister. Derek then ran the girls back home and took off for Olympia to catch some of Coby's soccer games. When Derek pulled into the parking lot of the first soccer game it was just after half-time. His phone rang and it was his coach. He said that Coby had just scored his second goal of the game and it was the nicest one of the year. Derek felt bad that he had missed that goal by just about a minute. They won that game 7-2 and then had another one at 7:30pm that night which they lost 2-1 in a close match. Derek and Coby then drove home exhausted and got home about 11pm.

Shelby had held down the fort at home and Derek was very pleased that the house was clean, laundry was done, dishes were done and Abby had made French bread. They really had done a great job. It is nice to know that we can leave them for a short and not so short period of time and not worry about them. Thanks Shelby & Abby!

We are now glad to have Jill and Blakeley home. Blakeley is having a little trouble nursing and we are trying to work that out. Thank goodness for electric pumps and syringes! Derek took the week off to help around the house and to help with the nighttime feedings. Each of us take what time we can find to catch a little sleep when we can.