Felicity Rose

Introducing the newest member of the Cultivating Foodies family, Felicity Rose.  She joined us bright and early on September 14, 2018.

This little bundle of sunshine arrived on the first snowstorm of the year, I had been having contractions off and on for days, I had been told 3rd babies like to mess around and it was proving to be very true.  That day I was home with the big kids and was having contractions.  But somehow I knew, that even though the contractions I was having were strong and random, I would not be ready to have the baby until Jamie arrived home.  Sure enough, as soon as he walked in the door I had my strongest contraction of the day.  I let our wonderful midwives know what was happening and we had supper and put the big kids Little Chef and Little Sous Chef to bed.  Shortly after our sweet midwife showed up to check my progress.  She let me know I had quite a bit of work to do still.  I was very disappointed, my labour with Little Sous Chef was so swift, I assumed she would say that we were ready to have this baby any moment.  But with all things in raising and having children, there was no way of predicting how this would happen.  She decided to head back in to town to pick up the backup nurse, as the other midwife was with another woman in labour.  Luckily Jamie is a very patient and supportive partner and he talked me though my contractions and told me over and over that I was doing well and I could do it.  I experienced a lot of doubt in myself this time around, I will write more about why very soon.  The contractions were strong and very random,  Some lasted for 1 minute, some for 9 minutes.  And if there is anything my hardcore Type-A personality hates, it’s randomness and disorder.  As I am sure you can imagine I was annoyed.  I wanted the contractions to behave so I could track how close I was, but there was no rhyme or reason.  Many times we debated if we should call the midwives back, but decided to give it a bit of time.  Our midwife had originally been out to check our progress at about 9 pm, and now at about midnight the contractions were very strong.  And then they stopped.  Completely stopped, I was crushed.  I thought the labour had stalled as it had so many days before leading up to this.  I cried and layed my head down on the couch and fell asleep.  A few moments later a huge jolt like a lightning bolt shook through me, and woke me with a start.  Suddenly I could feel my body pushing.  I yelled to Jamie that it was go time and he, like the steady and practical first responder that he is, coached me through some pushes and delivered our sweet baby on his own right there on our living room floor.  We both burst into huge smiles and laughter and he handed me our sweet gooey baby girl.  Our little lady made one squeaky cry, and from the kid’s room we heard a little voice “That’s my baby!”.  And out came little Sous chef to meet her little sister.  She slept through all the hollering, roaring and moaning and that one little squeak woke her.  Jamie phoned our midwives and told them the baby had arrived and they said they were on their way.  Jamie wrapped me in warm blankets from the dryer and we just sat and stared at our sweet little girl.  Little Sous Chef was in complete awe of her little sister.  It was such a surreal and amazing moment.  I cried relieved and happy tears at this beautiful little lady who has completed our family.

Life with 3 children has been quite an adjustment, but the 2 older kids are so madly in love with their sister.  They of course can’t wait to feed her, but that will have to wait a while.  We have been calling her “Little Chef de Partie” and now our brigade is complete.

-Stephanie

Purchase our cookbook HERE