I know that the family has been patiently waiting to see pictures posted on here. I’m finally able to sit down for a bit (over several days :-)) to write and post some pictures.
Here are a few ‘before’ pictures that were taken about a week before Sienna was born.
And here is what everyone has been waiting for… the pictures including Sienna.
Sienna was born at 2:44 am on February 15th (the same date that Ethan was born two years earlier). This picture was taken about 15 minutes after giving birth, as soon as they checked her out and cleaned her up.
All of these pictures were taken later the day she was born. 
She has a full head of hair, just like Ethan. Gary’s mom said that she is a Rickard because they all are born with a lot of hair. Ethan’s hair never fell out. I’m hoping that hers doesn’t either.
The Custers were Sienna’s first visitors. I’m not sure if William knew what to think, but either way, it is a little preparation for the arrival of his little brother in April.
It’s hard to say who we think she looks like at this point other than we both think that she looks like Ethan. It is evident that she has Gary’s forehead and possibly his cowlick (hopefully not :-)) and Kim’s nose.
For those who are interested in reading about the labor and delivery you can read below. Otherwise, you can just skip this part and read the last 2 or 3 paragraphs. :-)
When we returned from the mission’s conference in January (4 weeks before the due date) I was dilated 3 cm. I attributed it to being on my feet all week long at the conference and was more careful when exercising after that so not to speed things up. When I went to the doctor on the 14th (11 days before the due date), the doctor said that I was fully effaced and 4 cm dilated. He said that my body was completely ready to give birth and that she could come today, tomorrow, or just wait until the next week. A friend had offered to babysit Ethan after he was born, and we had never taken her up on it. Since we rarely go out on dates and knew it would be more difficult with the baby being born soon, Gary asked her at church on Sunday to watch Ethan sometime in the week. She said that she could watch him on Monday night (Valentine’s Day). So, Gary and I went out. Contractions began while we were out. When we came home we decided to go ahead and pack the car and bring Ethan’s suitcase, etc. by the front door. The contractions continued to get closer together, but I was expecting them to be stronger than they were. With Ethan, they came on very quick and went down to 5 minutes within an hour and a half. I remember not even being able to stand up with the contractions before we left the house. This time, I could still stand up but was hurling over some and swaying from side to side (not being able to just stand in one place). A friend down the street offered for us to call her if I went into labor in the middle of the night so she could just come sleep at the house rather than us waking Ethan up and taking him somewhere. We finally decided to call her to come. We left the house a little before 1:30 am and arrived at the hospital a few minutes before 2:00. When we got there my doctor was on call and examined me. He said that I was 8 cm dilated and then broke my water (he actually had a hard time breaking it; he said the membrane was real strong). He had to break my water with Ethan too (and neither Ethan nor Sienna had dropped before that point). He told me to go to my room and change and then walk back down the hall for him to check me again. While in the room the contractions were much stronger. Gary and the nurse helped me walk back down the hall and as soon as we got to the room for the doctor to examine me, I had to stop with a contraction. I felt a need to push during the contraction and just automatically started squatting some and pushing. The nurse quickly took me directly across the hall into the delivery room and called the doctor to come over. As soon as they got me on the table, he told me that I could start pushing. There were four series of pushes and she was out. After I gave birth I told the doctor that that was fast. He said yes and that had he not been on call that he would not have made it for the delivery. There would have been a different doctor on call, but we were thankful that he was there since we knew him and he had been working with me this whole time (and he speaks English). He is the same doctor who delivered Ethan.
It was such a different (and better) experience this time. After I gave birth Gary told me that I acted like I hadn’t even given birth. After giving birth to Ethan I was totally wiped out. Ethan’s umbilical cord was really short, so it took him quite a while to drop after the doctor broke my water, and I had to push for a long time. I was thankful that she dropped quickly. The most painful part was getting sewed up from tearing some. Last time my doctor did an episiotomy and then I tore in 2 places, so the pain afterward was FAR less this time and the recovery has been a night and day difference. It feels WONDERFUL to have some soreness compared to a lot of pain as well as to be able to walk around or stand up and sit down while holding Sienna. I feel like I can enjoy her much more at this stage in her life.
It was even a better experience at the hospital since there was at least one English speaking nurse on duty each shift. When Ethan was born there were hardly any English speaking nurses the whole 4 days. There are still some differences and issues with the nurses there, but I still felt much more comfortable since this was my 2nd time having a baby there.
I’m thankful to God for a healthy and safe delivery and for a recovery that is so much better than last time. I know that everything is supposed to be faster and better with having more children, but I know of some cases where it was more difficult. So, I’m VERY grateful that wasn’t my experience. I’m also thankful for friends who pitched in with coming to sleep with Ethan and feed him breakfast and take him during our stay in the hospital (THANK YOU Yulia and Kevin & Kristen!!!).
I will share a little interesting thing that Yulia shared about the morning that she got Ethan out of bed. Thankfully it went well (he had one person besides us putting him to bed since we were out and then had a different person besides us getting him out of bed). Yulia said that when she carried him downstairs that he asked for Daddy. She told him that he was helping Mommy. Then he said, “Doctor?” She said yes that we were with the doctor, and then he said, “Baby?” We know that there is no way he could understand that I was having the baby, but we found it interesting that he just put that together about being with the doctor when she said that Gary was helping me. He has gone to all of my doctor appointments and been listening to the baby’s heartbeat as they monitored it (including the day before she was born), so I’m sure it was on his mind a good bit.
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