seven and a half weeks ago sawyer-muffin made us a family of four.

i told myself at the time we were done-zo after sawyer. two kids and two adults. that's a nice ratio.

but day after day sawyer proves to be more and more perfect. a perfect baby. a patient little sister. an excellent running partner. a notable cuddler. she's just...the best. 

if i were guaranteed five more perfect babies like sawyer...well, i'd have like, two more babies. definitely not five. 

our muffy-muff arrived on october 24th. 10.24.14 - all even numbers if you care about that kind of stuff.
it started with me waking at 4 am to get showered, blow dried, and appropriately make-up'd before our family of three drove the hour to the big city for the scheduled induction.

when we pulled into the hospital parking lot, kaye's nana was there to pick her up for the day and night. when we said goodbye to kaye i couldn't help but wonder if she had any idea what was about to happen to our world.

my farmer and i made our way into the hospital where we got checked in and whisked away by the very best labor and delivery nurse there ever was. cathie - my bridesmaid, the nurse who helped deliver kaye, and now the nurse who would help deliver sawyer. 

it really doesn't get better than that. 

i decided a scheduled induction was the way to go for sawyer, because after going nearly two weeks overdue with kaye, with still no sign of any action, resulting in a scheduled induction with her...well, it just looked like the same situation all over again. my body was not responding to anything, i wasn't dilated, and i was 100% positive i didn't want to go past my due date. some may call me a quitter...i call me a winner with a plan.

once we settled into our room our doctor came in and gave me progesterone (in my whoo-ha) to get the party started. i was told i would start to feel cramping after a little bit and contractions after about an hour. we chatted for a bit more about ????

i have no clue what we chatted about because within two minutes of receiving the progesterone i was definitely feeling contractions. all i could think was how i wanted the doctor to leave so i could take off my brave face and start complaining about how badly my back and abdomen hurt.

our doctor left and i immediately confessed to cathie that we needed to order up that fancy epidural...stat. on the double. right now. 

within thirty minutes i was sitting on the side of the bed, curled around a pillow, cathie holding me stable through contractions as the anesthesiologist prepped my back for the goods. no shame in my game...i began feeling relief within minutes.

several hours passed and everyone gave their predictions as to when they thought sawyer would arrive. the general consensus amongst cathie, our doctor, and my farmer was between 3:30 and 4 pm. call it mother's intuition, but i just knew sawyer had other plans - quicker plans.

an hour or so passed - my water was broken, i watched some netflix, and all of a sudden i could feel some contractions. i was like, pump the brakes! i didn't pay for an epidural to feel contractions. my new best friend came back in and injected my line with what i now refer to as the hippo tranquilizer. all of a sudden my legs were gone. as in, i may as well not have had a lower body. i could feel 100% nothing. i can't say it wasn't a little freaky, but i can say it was better than feeling those contractions. the only bad part was i had no ability to move myself. i had to be flipped several times so the medication was distributed evenly between the left and right sides of my body...so my farmer and cathie physically had to pick me up and flip me. it really isn't fun to feel that helpless.

less than an hour passed - i watched some more netflix and all of a sudden cathie was back in our room explaining that she needed to see how dilated i was. i thought this was confusing because she had just told us that after my water was broken they wouldn't check me for awhile because of the risk of bacteria. so i asked cathie why she was checking me already so soon? low and behold, sawyer's head was right there. 

i'll never forget cathie telling me she was going to go out of friend mode and into business mode and then she asked me if i was ready to have a baby. i laughed. this was hysterical because sawyer wasn't supposed to arrive for at least two more hours. 

cathie was buzzing about the room getting everything ready, when our doctor came in, sat down, and asked for gloves. apparently sawyer was well on her way out. i gave a push and our doctor told me to stop. someone said something that i thought was funny, so i laughed again. (epidurals are awesome.) our doctor told me i should stop laughing or sawyer was going to make her debut. again, i found this funny, laughed some more, and just like that sawyer arrived. 

cover your eyes if you don't want to hear this, but sawyer was either really small, or i have a huge vagina, or i dilated to 27. maybe it was a combo of the three. but seriously, who laughs a baby out?

and the rest is history. we are a family of four.

SAWYER BELL SCHIERMEIER
october 24, 2014
12:58 pm
 6lbs 3oz - 20 inches
my farmer cut the umbilical cord. i held sawyer to my chest. and the feeling in my legs finally returned 45 minutes later. 
we had sawyer so early she was given a bath, a bow, and we were positive we would be headed home the next day to introduce her to her big sister. (kaye couldn't come to the hospital because she was just getting over a cold.)
unfortunately, sawyer decided that she didn't want to show the hospital staff that she could go #1, which is mandatory before we could be discharged. i was so frustrated because all i wanted to do was to hold my newborn in one arm and cuddle my first born in the other. 
sawyer eventually did her business by the second day and we were out of the hospital by 10 am. kaye was finally able to meet her little sister, and the introduction was the sweetest. every day kaye proves that she can be a great big sister...even with all her wild animal ways.
again, i can't believe how wonderful our sawyer-muff is. she makes our family that much more complete and brings smiles to our faces daily. she's beyond perfection.