Hail to the Princess Aurora

I noticed a few weeks back that I have been composing blog posts in my head whenever anything of note takes place. That was when I knew I needed to give myself over to the push and check back in to Blogger Island. But of all the anecdotes and incidences that were rattling around my head, looking to be posted, Aurora and her arrival are the most momentous, so she gets first place.

This is my sweet little daughter, Aurora, when she was three days old. She came into our lives last Wednesday, at 2:44 in the morning. In a way, she was super-late. In a way, she was completely unexpected. Aurora is our first home birth in eleven years. It was a wonderful experience, as far as labor can be wonderful. The delivery part was even more so. But she is not the person we were expecting. Not at all.

Early in this pregnancy, I got feeling like this little person was a boy. I kept that to myself, because I'm not hugely reliable in that department...I have been wrong before! But then Mark expressed a similar feeling. I took that into consideration, although he isn't any better at baby predictions than I am.

This is Aurora on her first day of Life. You may notice she is in non-pink, non-girlie clothing. That's because, by August, we really believed another boy was on the way. Even our children had begun to use masculine pronouns - without prompting from me! - to refer to the baby. I stuck to the chosen womb name, Tootles, but felt very confident that Tootles was actually Peter. All of our daughters have been Peter until the ultrasound. George was Peter until four days before he was born. I was SO confident, in fact, that I spent money on blue clothing, and turned down more than one offer for hand-me-down pink things. After all, I reasoned, I have four daughters, and a huge tote full of baby clothes from their collective infancies. My baby girl clothes were on loan to my sister, but I had repeatedly told her I was not in a hurry for her to return them. After all, we were expecting a boy.

Overconfidence is not in short supply at the House of Phogles. Just in case you didn't know. We never had an ultrasound, since this was a home birth. But we were still super confident. We got out the baby boy clothes, washed and sorted them for size and season. George had moved in with Hyrum months ago, so it was a simple matter to move his clothes upstairs, and organize a drawer full of blue cuteness in their place for Tootles. There was not a scrap of pink in the house smaller than size 3T.

So, after three and a half hours of active labor, when the midwife handed the baby to me, and I turned the baby around to see the new face, my very first words to my child were, "......you're a girl!?"

We didn't even have a girl name chosen. Mark and I had half-heartedly bandied around a few here and there, but nothing appealed to us both. And we didn't particularly care, since we were sure we were having a boy. Aurora was a full twenty minutes old before we addressed the issue. I asked if we could name her "something" Marguerite, since I've been wanting to use my grandma's middle name on a daughter since before I was married. Mark was fine with that.

And then I asked, "What about Aurora?" Mark gave me a deer-in-the-headlights look, as that name had never, ever come up before. At all. Ever. Until four hours before she was born. As Mark was intently watching the election results, I was in the bedroom, watching the clock and wondering if these contractions were legit, and if I should call the midwife. While I was focusing on my belly and the clock and all that, the name Aurora kept popping into my head. I didnt' really acknowledge it, except I remember thinking, "That really is a lovely name" and "Mark doesn't want another -uh- name...Eliz-uh, Gabriell-uh..." and "Why am I thinking about girl names? We're having a boy!"

Anyway, while I was struggling to recover from my surprise, I remembered that name, and threw it out there. And, in spite of Mark's reaction, he accepted it, and so Aurora Marguerite she is. It really is a lovely name. I still am not used to it, though. I never realized how much I relied on the weeks and months of pregnancy to roll a name around on my tongue and be acclimated to it.

Here is Gabriella with the newest member of the Sisters Club. Gabriella attended the birth, and she is the one who got to cut the umbilical cord. Mark and I thought that one over thoroughly. I consider it part of her education and preparation for young-womanhood and the rest of her life. I extended the invitation to her months ago, and told her to take her time deciding. After a lot of thought, she decided she wanted the experience. She did marvelously, by the way. She was very helpful, and so sweet. Later, she told me that she thought she would be scared, but that she wasn't. "You were right, it was kind of intense, but it was cool, Mom," she said.

Of course, because of all this, she has claimed Aurora as "her baby". Gabriella was at the birth, Gabriella cut the cord, Gabriella was the first of the children to hold the baby, Gabriella has a birthday in November, too. So that means Aurora is hers.

This is Amber, our midwife. She is awesome. She and I had a great time, talking and sharing stories and whatnot. During the prenatal visits, that is. On the night I went into labor, she brought another midwife, Anita, and they arrived less than thirty minutes before Aurora did (and two contractions before transition). Even so, the moment they walked in the door, they seamlessly moved into the situation. They knew exactly what was going on and where we were at and what to do, and their arrival was hardly a blip in my focus.

Aside from Gabriella, all the rest of our children slept through everything. Yvette, however, woke up after Aurora was here, but while I was still in the birthing pool with her (Yes, we did a water birth, and it was splendid and wonderful and grand). I told Mark to let her come and see. Yvy was enthralled, and not weirded out at all. She has been fascinated by the whole Baby process, anyway, and I have been as open and informative with her as I can. When the midwife came back for the Three Day Checkup, Yvy stayed in my room and watched the entire procedure. That afternoon, she came in with a shoelace and a marker lid, and used them as her stethescope. "I'm going to listen to your uterus, Mommy. Hmmmm. (moved the marker lid) Hmmmmm. (moved the marker lid) Yup, the good germs are still there!" Then she wanted to listen to my heart, and to the baby...I finally had to shoe her away before she tried to examine us head to toe.

George also woke up, but not until later, when Aurora and I were both cleaned up and tucked in bed. Mark was making us comfortable, and the midwives were bustling and tidying everything up. I told Mark to let George come and see. He was sweet, but mostly he wanted something to eat. Mark got him a fruit snack and a slice of cheese, and then tucked him back in to bed.

George adores this baby. The first time he saw her feet, he cupped them in his chubby hands, and cooed and sang to them, and kissed them over and over. It was just sweet.

Anyhow, the midwives turned off the lights in the living room and the kitchen. It was so nice to just have Mark with me, and snuggle and acquaint ourselves with Aurora, while Amber and Anita took care of everything else. When it was time for them to go, we thanked them and wished them a safe drive home, and then we went to bed, too.

In the morning, Gabba was up by eight o'clock. I have no idea why. But she brought Lucy downstairs with her, saying, "I just want to show you something..." I heard them talking, and when Gabba led Lucy into my room, I folded back the blankets and said, "Lucy, look what we did last night..." She saw the baby bundled up next to me, and her face light up with the most priceless look. "You had the baby!" she gasped. Of course, as soon as she was in on the secret, she and Gabba went back upstairs, and we repeated the thing with Eliza. It was fun. Hyrum was the very last one to know, as he was the very last one to haul himself out of bed.

Mark called our moms, and texted everyone else. You could almost hear the whoop of happiness and relief coming from his office, where his coworkers have been waiting for the baby's arrival almost as eagerly as we have. He called my visiting teacher, Zanna, who came through in a big way with a yummy, yummy dinner of Hawaiian haystacks and fruit salad. Plus, she sat on my bed and visited with me, which makes it so much easier for me to stay put and rest like I am supposed to. She also brought a blanket she had made (that bright pink butterfly one you see in so many of the photos). I thanked her profusely, telling her about my baby clothing folly, and how it was nice to have something pink to wrap Aurora in until Liz could get my baby girl clothes to me. Zanna chuckled, and said, "Well, I made two of them: one for a boy and one for a girl, since you didn't know for sure what you were having." Ah, the wisdom! How come I didn't think like that? In the meantime, we are dressing her in the least manly clothing we have. Not that Aurora cares. But I care.

Anyway, I'm so grateful for this little princess from Heaven. I would have never willingly named a daughter the same name as a Disney princess, but this is our Aurora. The girls call her Rorie sometimes, or 'Rora. I keep saying Aurora, because I'm still getting used to it. She is sweet and mellow and - as Mary Poppins liked to put it - practically perfect in every way. Official stats:

• 8 pounds, 9 ounces (exact same as Eliza),
• 22 inches long,
• 14 inch head (yup, she's one of ours! same Rubic's Cube head as all the rest...),
• soft, blond fuzz that is just long enough for bed-head,
• eyes that look like they just might end up brown, which pleases Hyrum and Eliza to no end,
• no crooked Pipkin pinkies, but long gorgeous fingers and leamur-toes,
• cute, floppy Galbraith ears the plop out at the top in the most adorable and fetching way

Mark has gone to extaordinary lengths to allow me to just laze about in bed for a week (he wants it to be two weeks, ultimately). He has been taking half days at the office, and cooking and cleaning and doing the Kid Taxi deed, all along side his regularly-scheduled Provider, Daddy, Husband, and Young Men's President duties. While enduring new-born-induced sleep deprevation. With one hand tied behind his back. He is amazing.

We are so smitten with this little bundle. Today is her ninth day. She is not who we were expecting, but she is not hard to keep, not at all. To quote a certain CGI donkey: "You're a girl!...uh, of COURSE you're a girl! You're just reeking of feminine beauty!"