{"id":1464,"date":"2014-02-26T10:08:12","date_gmt":"2014-02-26T15:08:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.michellebeachy.com\/blog\/?p=1464"},"modified":"2014-02-26T20:05:57","modified_gmt":"2014-02-27T01:05:57","slug":"its-a-girl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.michellebeachy.com\/blog\/its-a-girl\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s a girl!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Zara\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It’s been a week and we are still marveling over the wonder of her. \u00a0She’s a darling, darling lump of sugar; but best of all, she is here. \u00a0She is alive. \u00a0And she is healthy. \u00a0Liam thanks me almost every day for “eating healthy and keeping her alive” and every day I remind him it is God who kept her alive and brought her to us. \u00a0“She is just darling,” he says over and over and his darling sounds like a cross between darling and dare ling. \u00a0And then he follows up with, “She is just ador<\/em>able.”<\/p>\n

\"Feb<\/a><\/p>\n

Last Tuesday night I sat on the recliner listening to Michael Card lullabies. \u00a0Earlier I’d sent a text to a friend that said, “I think I’m going to be pregnant til July.” \u00a0Zara had squirmed into a better position, but there were certainly no signs of imminent labor. \u00a0I’d written a welcome baby sign on the chalkboard on Saturday and joked to the boys that maybe she’d know we’re ready. \u00a0On Tuesday at lunchtime Adam stared at the sign a bit and said, “Maybe if you would have written the welcome a little fancier, she’d want to come.”<\/p>\n

\"welcome<\/a><\/p>\n

We’d eaten supper at chuckwagon and afterward I asked Sheryl if she would hear the phone if I called at night. \u00a0She said she’d been thinking about that and would move a headset in that night. \u00a0We kept toggling with what to do with the boys. \u00a0Sheryl only has off on Wednesday and if the next day was her morning to do breakfast she needed to be in the kitchen way early in the morning. \u00a0For awhile Becca was around and available, but she’d left for Pennsylvania a few days earlier. \u00a0If push came to shove, we were going to take them along to Hagerstown and have Nola meet us at the hospital since they were going to stay with her anyway. \u00a0I just wasn’t sure I envied her if that happened in the middle of the night and they arrived in her car after listening to me labor for an hour. \ud83d\ude09 \u00a0My sister, Christy, said earlier when I was discussing all the variables, “You know, somehow I think God is going to take care of everything and it’s going to work out.” \u00a0How right she was.<\/p>\n

That night, a few minutes before 1, I woke to a wet whoosh of fluid and about fifteen minutes later we realized the race was on. \u00a0It didn’t take long to decide to call Sheryl. \u00a0I could hardly believe this “happened” to be the night before her day off. \u00a0It takes one hour and twenty minutes on a good day to get to the hospital. \u00a0It just so “happened” that we got in a measly few hours before the freezing rain hit the next morning. \u00a0It’s been a bit of an adjustment to get used to not be able to access David directly when he’s working at camp (no cell phone service and there aren’t separate office lines). \u00a0I was really just relishing the idea of going into labor while he was, oh, say, in supervisor’s meeting (not interrupted unless it’s serious) and having the secretary relay my desperate message to the whole group of men. \u00a0Not. \u00a0It just so “happened” that I went into labor at night when he was home. \u00a0And I guess if we’re talking about things that just “happened,” we could also be glad it didn’t just “happen” six hours earlier when I was sitting in chuck wagon.<\/p>\n

I say, “just so happened.” \u00a0Clearly, God had a few little surprise gifts all planned out ahead of times.<\/p>\n

Two and a half hours after our first warning, Zara was here. \u00a0All 7 lbs 2 oz and twenty-one inches of her.<\/p>\n

\"Feb<\/a><\/p>\n

It was love at first sight.<\/p>\n

Lots of people ask how to pronounce her name. \u00a0The first part of Zara rhymes with “car.” \u00a0It’s a name David and I learned to love when we spent two months in Ireland and fell in love with a beautiful, red-haired little girl just a bit older than Adam. \u00a0The best I can tell, the name is either Aramaic or Hebrew in origin. \u00a0We hadn’t really come up with another first name we were considering seriously, but as soon as I found the Hebrew meaning, I knew it was meant to be her name. \u00a0In Hebrew, the name Zara means “dawn, glorious.” \u00a0She is truly the glorious dawn breaking after a long night of hopes deferred and baby loss.<\/p>\n

\"Feb<\/a><\/p>\n

And now, for some pictures. And yes, there are a gazillion without even the slightest apology. No one in either of our extended families, with the exception of my mom and dad, has seen her yet.<\/p>\n

\"Feb<\/a><\/p>\n

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My sweet friend, Sheryl. \u00a0I’m so lucky to have her here this year. \u00a0I was doubly glad we chose the hospital we did, even though it was so far away. \u00a0Our only reason in making the decision was the incompetent care Adam and others received at the local hospital along with the fact that I couldn’t find a local obstetrical office who took me seriously when I was first pregnant and my symptoms were most similar to my molar pregnancy. \u00a0I wanted an ultrasound NOW because I was not about to go through the horrible, horrible hormone wash of a molar pregnancy not discovered until twelve weeks. \u00a0As it turned out, no one could offer me anything and I traveled back to Virginia to my regular office where they insisted I do a high def, not just an in-office ultrasound. \u00a0You cannot imagine the sweet relief of seeing a baby that day. \u00a0Even the ultrasound tech said, “Can I just give you a hug? \u00a0I am so happy for you!” \u00a0Other than that, I was mostly happy with my care here. \u00a0The nurses at the hospital were fabulous and most of the midwives \/ doctors at the office were great, there were just so many of them. \u00a0I had two favorite midwives and one favorite doctor and one of those midwives did my delivery (another little God-gift since I knew there was a distinct possibility someone I hadn’t even seen in office would be on call). \u00a0She was FABULOUS. \u00a0Later at least three people said she is the best of them all. \u00a0The nurse told me the next day she’d have ten children if she knew D____ would deliver all of them. \ud83d\ude42 \u00a0But the fun side benefit of this hospital was that I was close to friends and they came to visit that first night! \u00a0It was my first baby so far away from family and it was so. much. fun. to have friends pop in with smiles and hugs and pink to celebrate with us! \u00a0Clearly, the pregnancy is over. \u00a0My hermit tendencies are gone!<\/p>\n

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I kid you not, I’m convinced this is exactly how she lay in utero. \u00a0Twisted halfway to the side with her legs up!<\/p>\n

\"Feb<\/a><\/p>\n

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Seriously, Mom, don’t you think that’s enough? \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s been a week and we are still marveling over the wonder of her. \u00a0She’s a darling, darling lump of sugar; but best of all, she is here. \u00a0She is… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-baby","category-zara"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39ynQ-nC","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.michellebeachy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.michellebeachy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.michellebeachy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.michellebeachy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.michellebeachy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1464"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.michellebeachy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1464\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1516,"href":"https:\/\/www.michellebeachy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1464\/revisions\/1516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.michellebeachy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.michellebeachy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.michellebeachy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}