Victoria Kären Mang

Sunday, November 1, 2009, at 10:36 a.m; 7 lbs. 5 oz. and 19 1/2 inches.

Since Tori is now almost 4 weeks old (I can't believe it), it's about time she officially had her own post on the family blog.

Here's her story so far:

My Dr. had scheduled me for an "elective" induction on November 1, but I went into labor anyway around 2 a.m. on the 1st, (just barely missing a Halloween birthday, thankfully). I laid in bed for awhile, because the contractions were only every 10 minutes or so but were pretty intense. After awhile, I thought I'd better hop in the shower just in case this is the real deal, but I still didn't want to wake up Keith or call my parents just yet. The contractions never got much closer together than 10 minutes but were pretty strong, and this being my 4th baby, I was pretty sure it was not false labor. So, I woke Keith and told him I was having some hard contractions. He kept saying, "Are you sure?" I kept saying, "I'm pretty sure." After about 45 minutes of me continuing to get ready and him still sleeping in bed, I finally yelled, "Get out of bed, I'm in labor!!!" He was like, "All right, calm down." He should know by now, you don't tell a laboring woman to calm down!

I called the hospital to tell them I was coming and then called my parents to come up and stay with the kids. And here's the ironic thing, my sister had been in town from Utah the whole week before, and they had to leave early on the 1st to drive back, because her husband was starting his new assignment with the army the next day. So literally just as she was getting out of bed at 4 a.m. to get ready to leave for home, my parents' phone rang, and my brother-in-law, Donavon, was like who the heck calls so early in the morning? My sister Eleasa said, "Duh! Somebody in labor!" So, they literally missed little Tori by hours. It was a bummer!

After my parents arrived, Keith and I headed to the hospital. We got there about 5:30 a.m., and I was already about 6-7 cm/80% effaced. At this point, my contractions were still not super close together, but obviously I was progressing, so once they sent me to my room from triage, they said if you want an epidural, you'd better do it now. I didn't really feel like I needed it, but I was too much of a wuss to try to do it "natural." So, once I had my epidural, it was pretty smooth sailing from there. Well, maybe not totally smooth, I did throw up and got the shakes really bad. :) But other than that, when it came time to push, I literally pushed about 2-3 times and out she came! I didn't get to hold her right away, because there had been a little meconium in the amniotic fluid, so they wanted to suction her out really good. Keith got to hold her first (he did with Austin too).

As you can see, she is a beautiful, healthy baby girl. I'm really enjoying her and many days I feel like I spend hours just holding and looking at her. The laundry and dishes (and blogging) can wait, right?! Her temperament is pretty good. There have been many nights that she will sleep 6-7 hours straight, and I have to wake her to feed. She has a few fussy moments here and there, mostly when she is having a bit of "indigestion." She is VERY spitty. One of her nicknames is "Burps." We literally go through several outfits a day and soak a bib and burp cloth every time she eats. So that part is not so fun, but I can't complain.

The kids are really good with her. Austin and Anne Elyse especially. Tyler doesn't pay too much attention to her, but I have been pleansantly surprised at how helpful the other two have been. They are eager to help when I ask them to get a diaper or her binky, and they even take turns feeding her a bottle once in awhile (we usually do at least one bottle a day, other than that she is breast fed).

She is about 3 weeks old in the above picture. I have more pictures coming that were taken of her at about 12 days old.

As for her name, she is named after my great-grandmother, Lettie Victoria (Campbell) Johnsen (who went by Victoria). Lettie Victoria was born in 1899 in England while her parents were serving a mission for the church there. She is my grandma Elyse's mother. Tori's middle name is Keith's mom's name. She was born in South Africa, where we know there is a British influence (Her dad, Keith's grandpa, has the cutest British accent). So her name is very British! And fittingly, Kären was in South Africa with her sisters and dad when Tori was born. They had not been back there since immigrating to the U.S. when she was a little girl. The little dots over the "a" are to let you know it is pronounced "Kahr-en" not "Kare-en."