Here she is!

A photo to satisfy this mother's need to show off her beauty...

SHE'S HERE!!

A short note just to celebrate the arrival of Sage Charis to our family! Born Monday, April 10, 00:01 a.m. Perfect in every way.

Don't know how blogger etiquette works, but I'll risk offending some rule by just quoting what my husband wrote that day and sent out to our family... it was a crazy labor and delivery story...

"To our great excitement and astonishment Sage Charis Hansen was born last night at 12:01, at 6lb13oz and 20 inches.

It was quite the adventure. The labor came on extremely fast. She was three weeks early and so neither of us expected her to be born last night. Yesterday morning Jennifer had some strong contractions but they stopped later at church and did not return in any serious way until the evening. At 9:30 last night we had to make a decision. Would we spend the night on Bowen or take the last ferry to the mainland? Thanks be to God we decided to go. We called a friend to stay with Sterling and Siena and we left. We arrived at the place we were to spend the night and got settled and went to bed at 11:07. At this point we did not think there was much chance anything would happen that night. So I nodded off to sleep. Two minutes later Jennifer yelped. Her water had broke and labor came on very strong. She could no longer walk so at 11:15 Jennifer crawled on all fours out the door, down the hallway, and into the elevator. I raced out the door when it next stopped. I came face to face with four people waiting to get on the elevator. Jennifer crawled out, still on all fours. But then I realized that we were not on the ground floor. The elevator was very small, only enough room for four people. By the time we turned around and Jennifer began to crawl back into the elevator the four others had gotten in. I yelled at them to get out but they did not respond. I had to pull two of them out before the doors could close. As we descended the two men stood there petrified, they were Asian, and when one of them finally spoke he said, "We speak no English." Poor guys. When we got to the bottom there were five others waiting for the elevator. Jennifer crawled out as I ran ahead to get the car door opened. I ran back to get her and the others, big eyed, watched us. I yelled, "Baby!" and the two apparently non-English speaking women started to shout back, "bay-be?... BAY-BEE!!!!"

It took twp contractions to get Jennifer across the parking lot and into the car. We only had four blocks to drive, but I did not know where to park and get into the hospital after hours. We found an entrance but it was locked and deserted. A nurse walked out and I ran in and asked her for a wheelchair. She left to get one and it seemed like forever for her to return. Jennifer at this point was screaming in the back of the minivan. (We took out the back seat and with blankets and comforters made a little bed for her to lie down on.) When the wheelchair came she was barely able to get on. Then the nurse said I needed to park the car and enter through the emergency room entrance. I did, but I was in a panic. They would not let me into the hospital. Once I convinced them to get in there was no one around to show me where to go. So I ran up and down hallway after abandoned hallway. Eventually I found my way to Jennifer. At 11:40. Our midwife arrived at 11:45. Sage was born at 12:01.

It was a very painful and intense delivery. We discovered that our baby was a girl and that she was very healthy. We were given the most fantastic care from the nurses and our midwife. I cannot stress how impressed we are with it all. They have treated birth like a normal event – not a medical one – and given time for everything. There was no rush. So Sage was able to nurse right away and we had about an hour together as a family before the testing and vitamin K shot, etc were performed. In all it was a terrific experience.

We intend to go home tomorrow afternoon, so feel free to give us a call then. We talked to Sterling and Siena first thing this morning and I could tell how excited they were. However, they are much more excited about sleeping over at their friends house tonight – so they will not meet Sage until tomorrow."

Hopefully we'll take a few minutes from staring at her tomorrow to post a photo or two!

On to new projects

Now that I seem to be on a normal pregnancy pattern (the doctor yesterday said that unless my liver levels spike, we can continue monitoring and have a normal delivery - yippee!), I am ready to take on and finish a few things before this little nugget makes an appearance!

I have made several of Debbie Bliss's bunnies from her book, Toy Knits. I finally bought the book (after using it from the library), because I am now onto the little monkey with fez cap. There were lots of comments on Amazon that this was not a great book, but I have to disagree. There are a few things I would change, and some of her notations are unique (though I suspect that is the UK/US divide showing up), but overall, even a middling knitter like myself can make these and have great success!

So, this past two weeks of too much bed resting, I've managed to get everything but the ears knit and stuffed. Today is the day to put it all together and see if it looks even remotely as cute as hers does. Hopefully I'll have pictures tomorrow!

In pulling out the wool scraps to make the monkey, I came across all the other yarn remnants I have, and found two skeins of orange yarn, leftover from making my son's sweater. I thought I'd make something for the baby with it, but can't find a pattern that fits the weight of the yarn (it's a bit bulky). I've cast on and knit two fronts, but frogged them both, since they just didn't do what I wanted. (by the way, isn't frogging - "rip it, rip it" the best phrase for ripping out all that work??). Would love ideas of what to make for the nugget - seems like he/she deserves something more than the half dozen hats I've made so far...

Liver Update

For anyone interested, a brief update on my liver and the baby... I've now had three sets of bloodwork, all of which confirm that my liver levels are elevated by holding steady. I'm 37 weeks tomorrow, the typical drop date for a scheduled induction, even in mild cases of cholestasis. I go for fetal monitoring again tomorrow, my regular midwife appointment, and I'm supposed to call the doctor's office as well (not sure what for, everything is vague on the phone, perhaps to discuss the next stage). I'm feeling better - our community here on Bowen is simple amazing. We've had people watch the kids, bring flowers and blossoming cherry tree branches, call, pray and generally care for us like the family they have become. With all that love, my anxiety level (which tends to like taking off into the stratosphere) is low and I am able to rest and just enjoy however much longer we - this baby and I - together in one body. I may even take a few belly shots for the pleasure of remembering this basketball I'm carrying around!