To my disappointment, Sunday morning I got a call saying that they had no room for me at that time. But then to my delight, they called later that morning and told us to be there by 12:30 that afternoon. My sisters, Sara and Amelia were brave and generous to take care of Lulu for the time that we would be away. (They did a great job taking care of her and we are grateful beyond words that they both live in the same town as us!)

When we got there we were led to the same delivery room that we had Lulu in! We took that as a good sign. An hour later the appropriate medication was administered (much like it was when I had Lulu). And while we watched the four o’clock Patriots game, the contractions began. The upside to being scheduled for the induction this time around is that my own doctor was going to deliver the baby. It was reassuring.

one last look at the belly

By 11 pm that night I was demanding my epidural and it kicked in by 11:30, although the pain was not completely gone. I was informed that they don’t use as much anesthesia as they used to so all sensation was not gone. Great.

Forrest and I got some rest while we could. The fact that the time line things were happening in was almost identical as it was the first time around was not lost on me. Around 1:15 am the doctor came in to check on me. She thought that maybe the baby would come in an hour or two. She ended up being wrong. The baby came much sooner!

By 1:3o I was calling everyone to the room to get things prepped. To my dismay I realized that I was going to feel quite a bit more of my delivery than I wanted to. The upside was that the actual delivery was over in ten minutes and at the end we had a beautiful, wailing little girl!

Unlike her sister, who was quiet as a mouse, 2.0 was a definite screamer! She was whisked away to be weighed and measured. She came in at 8 lbs. 2 ounces and 21 inches long. Slightly larger than Lulu, but I attribute that to longer time “baking”!

She screamed for 45 minutes straight until I realized she was trying to jam her fingers into her mouth. She was hungry. We got a bottle for her and when she finished eating she was a very content little baby. They let us stay in the delivery room with her until around 3 am and then we all got moved up to the maternity ward. We dropped the baby off at the nursery and then got settled in the room.

Girl Frazier

The next morning the calls, texts, tweets and Facebook status updates were all fast and furious. Our parents came to the hospital during the day and friends came that night.

Grampy Frazier

Grammy Frazier

Grammy K

Grampy K

Forrest and I spent the night thinking of names for the baby. It was not so easy this time around and we didn’t come to a decision that night.

I was bound and determined to go home the next day. I couldn’t bare another night in the noisy hospital and I was missing Lulu a lot. My doctor checked in on me the next morning and gave me the thumbs up to head home. Of course that put the pressure on for us to give this little girl a name!

no-name Frazier

Round and around we went. We had a few names that we kept coming back to (Olivia, Temperance and Mabel) but the name Rose really seemed to stick. It’s a name that is common in both of our families and kept with the flower theme we initiated with Lulu. It was going to be her middle name but we couldn’t find a first name that we thought flowed well with it. Plus in my mind I had already imprinted her with that as her first name. Her middle name, Madeleine, was a spur of the moment decision. It sounded nice and just worked for us.

Father of 2 girls...DOOMED

We were home by noon and I was anxious to see Lulu and her reaction to her lil sister. She was super-happy to see me and when I put the baby carrier on the floor and she saw a tiny baby inside she let out a squeal of excitement. She wanted to climb inside the carrier and kiss the baby, but she was also a little nervous and didn’t want to touch her. But as the day went on she started getting used to the idea that the baby wasn’t going anywhere.

Lulu luvs her lil sister

The rest of the day and night was spent getting back into the rhythm of taking care of a newborn once again and enjoying our little family.

She definitely started feeling better over the weekend. She’d gained back her sense of humor and playfulness. I’m happy to report that we’re all on the mend and will hopefully be good and healthy for the holidays.

I don't know why, but I really enjoy doing this to my child.

Getting into the xmas spirit. This is the only pic I took where she didn't look stoned.

Her Uncle John and Auntie Sarah are her proud god parents and we are very happy that they accepted.

And thank you to our family and close friends for being there to share the experience and for all your generosity. We love you guys!

On July 19th at 2:17AM we finally met our new little Lucy. She was 6lbs 15.5oz and perfect.