We welcomed a brand new baby on January 24th, and we’ve been in a (mostly) blissful newborn bubble ever since.
It has been a wild — and simultaneously slow — few weeks for us. But I finally have a chance to sit down at my computer and write (since my mom is staying with us this week and there’s an extra set of hands).
Here’s the short story…
It’s a GIRL!
Her name is Senya.
Mom, Baby, Dad and Big Sister are all doing great. And we are all smitten.
We’re soaking in lots of newborn snuggles and trying to adjust to life as a family of 4 (and a whole lot less sleep than we’re used to!).
Want the longer version?
If you want the long version with all the details (and lots of pictures!), you’ve come to the right place. Keep reading or jump to the topic you’re interested in:
- Our full (positive) birth story
- My favorite labor & postpartum products
- Labor playlists
- Meaning (& funny story) behind Senya’s name
- Postpartum (so far)
Birth Story
My main reason for writing this all down is to record this for ourselves, so we don’t forget the details of this day over time.
I’ve also found over the last few years that I really enjoy reading other peoples’ birth stories, so I thought I’d share with you in case you also like hearing these.
So without further adieu, here’s the story of how Senya was born…
How it began
On January 24th, I woke up at 1:30am to contractions. It was just 2 days before my due date, so I was pretty sure that this was it.
I told Ben that today would probably be the day, so we both went back to sleep and *tried* to get some rest. “Tried” being the key word here!
Once I couldn’t sleep anymore, we got up and Ben made pancakes. I attempted to eat in between contractions alongside him and Juniper. I wanted to make sure I had enough energy for what was about to come…
I explained to our 3-year-old that today was the day we were going to have baby, and that she was going to have a sleepover with a friend.
“When we pick you up,” I said, “You will meet her baby brother or sister.“
(At this time she was very sure it would be a boy!)
We saved gender to be a surprise until birth (we did the same thing with Juniper), and we personally think it’s such a fun surprise if you can stand waiting!
Saying goodbye to her was so bittersweet, knowing this would be the last moments together as a family of 3. Oooof, I still get a little teary eyed just thinking about that.
After Ben got home from dropping off Juniper, we stayed at home as long as possible.
I took a bath, sat on the yoga ball, and turned on my labor playlist.
Ben had planned to let me listen to audio messages friends had sent about funny memories with me (so sweet!), but by the time he started playing one for me, I immediately told him, “Not the time!”
By that point, I had zero capacity for anything other than getting through each contraction and resting in between.
Turns out, we didn’t get as much time at home as we thought we would.
My contractions started getting stronger and closer together, and when they were about 3 minutes apart, we headed to the birth center at the hospital. (We live just a 4-minute drive from the hospital, so we left at what we felt was the last minute.)
Little background: Previous labor & birth wishes
My labor with Juniper was long. Like really, really long.
From the time my contractions first started to the time she was born, it was 55 hours, including 4 straight hours of pushing.
(Here’s the short version of Juniper’s birth story, including something that made it pretty special.)
So I was really hoping that the time around, labor would be shorter.
I was also hoping to give birth naturally, without medication or an epidural.
That said, I went in with an open mind because I know complications happen and at the end of the day, all I really wanted was a healthy baby.
Getting to the hospital
Fast forward to us checking into the hospital…
I got checked into my room, met my angel of a nurse, and found out I was 5-6 cm dilated.
For comparison, when I checked into the hospital during Juniper’s labor, I was 8.5 cm dilated an she wasn’t born for another 24 hours, so I didn’t know what to think.
Pretty much immediately, I got into the Jacuzzi tub because it was the only thing that brought relief.
We had brought a pack of twinkle lights from home that Ben strung up in the bathroom so it actually felt kind of magical even though we were in a hospital (I highly recommend this!).
I think I stayed in the bath for at least 3 hours (I kind of lost track of time!), and listened to the labor playlist I had carefully curated.
By the way, if you’re looking for a good labor playlist (or just some chill, relaxing songs), I got you!
My midwife just happened to be the person on call that day (the same thing happened with Juniper!), so it felt really great having someone I was comfortable with who knew my birth wishes instead of a doctor I hadn’t met. That was just pure luck.
Eventually, I moved out of the tub and I could tell it wouldn’t be much longer.
I was in a zone and could barely speak.
Even music with words was too much at this point, so Ben switched the playlist to this one.
Ben, the nurse and midwife helped me find a comfortable position and get ready to push.
Instead of 4 hours like with Juniper, I pushed for just 19 minutes.
Thank goodness.
Our baby was born at 6:30pm, making this labor 17 hours (aka less than half of Juniper’s labor!).
Ben was the one to tell me, “It’s a girl!” and place her on my stomach (the umbilical cord was really short, so that’s as far as she could go).
As soon as I knew it was a healthy girl, I started crying and held her there on my stomach for a good 5 minutes, until the umbilical cord stopped pulsating.
After Ben cut the cord, I got to bring her up to my chest and really look at her and let it soak in that we have another girl. SISTERS.
The next hours were a blur of nurses checking on me and Baby, eating for the first time since morning, trying to get some much needed rest, and turning to Ben multiple times and saying, “Did I really just do that?”
I had the natural birth I dreamed of and a healthy baby girl that I couldn’t stop staring at.
Her dark hair.
Her tiny fingers with shockingly long nails.
Her chubby, squishy cheeks. (So chunky, in fact, that she could barely open her eyes during her entire first week of life.)
Senya Jacqueline Zweber. 8 lbs 4 oz. 19.5 in long.
The perfect addition to our little family.
We attempted to get a little sleep that night – me in the (uncomfortable) hospital bed and Ben on the (even more uncomfortable) window bench, with Senya in a bassinet in between us.
After a crappy cup of hospital coffee the next morning, Ben ran to our favorite nearby coffee shop to get me a much deserved latte and liege waffle.
I don’t know if it was the oxytocin coursing through my veins, the comparison to the subpar hospital brew, or realizing that I no longer need to limit my caffeine consumption, but that latte was everything.
The rest of the day was a blur…
A steady flow of nurses, pediatricians, lactation consultants, admin staff, and doctors.
Staring at our brand new, squishy baby.
Whispers of “Is this real life?”
Eating multiple slices of flourless chocolate cake and milkshakes (the only actually good items on the hospital menu).
Sneaking in a few episodes of Friends.
A couple of interrupted attempts of napping.
Several poopy diapers (which is a good thing in those early hours).
Finally listening to the messages of funny stories friends had sent to help me get through labor.
That afternoon, Ben picked up Juniper and brought her to the hospital to meet her baby sister. Not gonna lie, this was one of the moments I was most looking forward to and it absolutely melted me ❤️
Watch this short video of Juniper meeting Senya for the first time and see what she thought we should have named her! (She gave us a really good laugh!)
By 8pm that night, we were finally discharged and able to go home, sleep in our own bed, and start this new chapter as a family of FOUR (which I’m still trying to wrap my head around!).
Labor & postpartum products
Not gonna lie, I packed a little too much for the hospital.
But nobody is weighing your bag or checking your amount of liquids. And you don’t have to carry the suitcase far, so it’s one of those rare situations where overpacking isn’t that big of a deal.
I wanted to be prepared and have everything I needed no matter what arose. That meant there were some things that never got touched. Oh well.
For both Juniper and Senya’s births, there were a handful of items that I was so happy I packed.
In case you (or someone you know) will be giving birth soon, these are the things I actually used.
Items to pack in your hospital bag:
- Blanket: Trust me, you’ll want a cozy blanket from home to make the setting more comfortable. (Hospital blankets are sad.) Bring one for you and one for your birth partner if they’ll be spending the night.
- Comb: I threw this in at the very last minute and I’m so happy I did. You can grip the comb in your palm during contractions to divert pain and make it more manageable. Some companies sell birthing combs, but I just used one we already had at home and it worked well.
- Nightgown / comfy clothes for giving birth: Hospital gowns are scratchy and don’t fit anyone well. For both births, I brought my own clothes and was so much more comfortable.
- Nursing bra: You’ll want a nursing bra if you are planning on breastfeeding. I’ve tried a lot, and I am absolutely obsessed with this one.
- Speaker: You’ll want something to play your music on during labor.
- Bluetooth headphones: Nice for if you want to watch anything on your phone while baby is sleeping.
- Charging cords: for your phone, speaker and sound machine.
- Travel sound machine: This is so helpful at night and helps you and baby sleep. You’ll also use it a lot after giving birth, so I recommend getting it early on and packing it in your hospital bag.
- Tap light: Another item we use all the time when traveling with a baby or late-night feedings at home, this is really nice to have at the hospital.
- String lights: Somehow twinkle lights can transform a hospital room into a cozy environment. We strung them up in the bathroom so when I was in the tub I could have the (florescent) lights off. It was so nice.
- Mood light: We use this in our toddler’s bath and I started using it in my own baths too! We brought it to the hospital and funny enough they already had one in the room for us, but I don’t think this is common in most hospitals. It definitely creates a cozy, more intimate atmosphere.
- Cozy socks / slippers: You’ll want something for your feet, whether warm socks or slippers.
- Postpartum underwear: The hospital provides some, but after the first night, I much preferred the ones I packed to the gauzy hospital kind. Plus, this was what I wore at home for the first few days.
- Essential oils: Having lavender and peppermint essential oils on hand can be really nice to calm your nerves and lessen nausea. You can sniff it from the bottle or bring a cotton pad to hold.
- Water bottle: I like having my own water bottle everywhere, hospital included. I love this one because it is insulated and keeps my water cold. Plus, it has a straw.
- Eye mask: A must for getting some shut eye in a hospital room. This is the best eye mask I’ve ever used!
- Baby book: We brought our baby book so that the nurse could help us get footprints on the actual page. Our hospital provided an ink pad, but you can bring your own too.
- Snacks: I packed a handful of snacks, none of which I felt like eating during labor. But it was nice having them available after birth when the kitchen was closed. I had some dates, dried mangoes, RX bars, and Chomps beef sticks.
- Gifts for Big Sister: We brought a couple of items for our toddler, so she felt special on this day too. We got her this book about being a big sibling, this big/little sister Koala stuffed animal, and this baby carrier.
Here’s all these items (plus a few more) rounded up in one place:
Labor playlists
I can’t stress enough how nice it was to have my own music for labor.
It felt like something I had control over, and it made the environment feel more comfortable and less like a hospital.
If you have the time, I really recommend creating your own playlist of songs that are calming and put you in a happy mood. the process of making it was kind of therapeutic for me.
Or you can totally borrow the playlist I made. I’m still listening to it on repeat weeks after giving birth.
My nurse said it was one of the best labor playlists she’d heard – so that’s saying something!
I actually had two playlists: one for early labor, and one when I got closer to pushing (when songs with lyrics were just too much).
Early Labor playlist
This playlist has calming songs with an acoustic, folky vibe, featuring artists like Noah Kahan, Hollow Coves, Ben Howard, and Bon Iver (plus lots of lesser-known artists I have a feeling you’ll love!).
Late Labor playlist
I can’t take credit for creating this mix, but it is a perfect blend of relaxing soundscapes, like what you’d hear in a spa.
It’s the perfect backdrop for the last part of labor.
Story behind Senya’s name
Since we didn’t know our baby’s gender, we had to decide on both a girl and a boy name.
When it came to boy’s names, we only had one: The same name we had chosen if Juniper had been a boy.
For girls names on the other hand, I had about 50 that I love… Ben vetoed about 75% of them, but we still had a handful to choose from.
Then, in September, we traveled to Norway and fell in love with an island in the north called Senja. We did one of our favorite hikes of all time there, and just had such a sweet experience.
The more we said Senja, the more we fell in love with that as a name. And shortly after our trip, we decided that was our name if Baby was a girl.
Her middle name, Jacqueline, is for my mom.
So here’s the funny story…
A few weeks before giving birth, Ben asked me if we should consider spelling Senja with a “y” instead of a “j” to make the pronunciation more obvious.
I said no.
My reasoning being that I wanted it spelled the same as the Norwegian island where we got our inspiration from. He agreed, and we didn’t talk about it again after that…
Once we knew we’d had a girl, we filled out her name in the birth record at the hospital as “Senja”, and went home with all the birth certificate paperwork.
Three days after she was born, we had her first appointment at the pediatrician, and while we sat in the waiting room, a nurse came out and called, “Sen-JAH”.
At first I ignored her because I thought she was calling for someone else. But when I realized she was calling us, something clicked in my brain…
This is how people will pronounce her name her entire life.
That night I could barely sleep because I kept having flashes of people constantly mispronouncing her name.
So the next day, we decided to change the spelling to Senya (with a “y”), and went to the city registrar’s office to start the process. (After spending a bunch of time trying to figure out who to even talk to about this in the first place.)
I naively thought it can’t be that big of a deal to change just one letter. We haven’t even submitted her birth certificate information, after all.
Well, it turns out it IS kind of a big deal since the birth record had triggered her social security card to be processed…
Long story short, getting the correct spelling on her birth certificate would take 16 weeks.
We have an international trip planned for this spring, and we need to apply for a passport for Senya. To get her a passport we need — you guessed it — a birth certificate.
So essentially, we got all the documents with the original spelling (Senja) so we can use them on this trip; and then we will immediately start the process to get the same documents (social security card, birth certificate, and passport) with the updated spelling (Senya).
It has been quite a headache (and all totally my fault!), but I feel a lot better knowing she won’t have a lifetime of constantly correcting people on the pronunciation of her name.
Plus, it’ll be quite the story to tell her someday!
Anyway, sorry to all the friends and family members who got our original announcement and must have been very confused when they saw two different spellings of our daughter’s name.
Postpartum (so far)
I took prenatal yoga for a couple of months leading up to birth, and one thing that the teacher really emphasized what how important it is to fully rest during the 4th trimester.
To allow other people to cook for you. (Thank you to the sweet friends who have dropped off meals!)
To take long baths.
To hold your baby without guilt of not getting things done.
To eat warming foods and drinks.
To prepare food in advance so you have less responsibility in the first weeks. (Here’s a list of the meals we made.)
To really, truly slow down.
If I’m honest, sitting still is hard for me. After a few days of it, I get itchy feet. So this postpartum has been a mix of truly sitting back and also getting out there.
In our first 3 weeks, we’ve:
- brought Senya to a few different restaurants
- had newborn photos taken
- hosted my parents
- gone on lots of winter walks
- brought her to the local ski resort (so her big sister could get a snowboarding day)
- applied for her passport
But we’ve also:
- binge-watched tv, guilt free (Below Deck is our current obsession!)
- read 2 books (mostly while holding a baby in my arms)
- had lots of cozy nights in
- enjoyed slow mornings with no agenda
- let the dishes pile up more than once
It is definitely a balancing act. And I’ll admit that it is taking a bit of time to find our groove.
After Juniper’s birth, we had a really wonderful postpartum season.
When I think back on it, I just remember it being this cozy bubble.
I know I’m forgetting the sleepless nights and the moments where we felt like we had no clue what we were doing. But truthfully, it was so much better than I expected.
This time around is a little different for a couple of reasons:
- In addition to a newborn, we also have a toddler. So we can’t just nap whenever Senya is sleeping (as we often did when Juniper was tiny). Having a toddler in the house also means there’s a lot more cleaning up to do (IYKYK), and another person with whom we need to share our time and energy. It’s a whole additional layer.
- Business is in a weird place right now. If you know anything about the blogging world, you might already know that it has been a precarious year for content creators. (If you want to know more about what I’m talking about, #18 in this article goes more into detail.) For this reason, it’s hard for us to feel comfortable taking off as much time to just soak up newborn cuddles like we did when Juniper was brand new. Honestly, it has already been a struggle because we just wanting to stare at Senya all day, yet we don’t want to fall super behind with work.
It’s a lot to balance…
Caring for both a toddler and a newborn.
The urge to just sit and stare at our beautiful new baby and the desire to not let business backslide.
The rest we desperately need and the itch to get out and start exploring, little by little.
Being okay with the fact that everything takes 10x longer and we’re not very productive these days.
It’s a lot, and while we’re far from perfect, we’re trying our best. And we’re giving ourselves grace to be imperfect through it all.
But most of all, we’re just so grateful that we have this time together. We know from experience that these first weeks and months are unlike any other time we’ll have in our lives, and they go fast.
Thank you for your support and understanding that our capacity is a bit limited these days. We can’t wait to share more soon.
Thank you so much for sharing your birth story! So incredibly beautiful – and congratulations! I’m a soon-to-be first time mom, expecting baby boy in two weeks so reading this gave me such comfort and affirmation of the birth preferences we have (especially the fairy lights which are already packed and I can’t wait to use!). My husband and I have been following you both since we did a campervan trip around Iceland in 2018 and I can’t tell you how special it’s been to follow your journey and we can’t wait to see what you get up to next (after the newborn bubble) as a family of four! Sending lots of love and best wishes from sunny South Africa
Congratulations!
What a beautiful and heartfelt story! Your journey to becoming a family of four is so inspiring. I love how you shared the ups and downs of the experience. Wishing your family lots of joy and love as you embrace this new chapter together! Thank you for sharing!
Thank you for sharing your birth story! Wishing you so much calm and happiness during this beautiful change for your family!
Absolutely love your birth story! Thanks for sharing! And you go girl for having the birth experience you planned on and desired! So cool!
The balancing is soo hard, I know! When I had my son, I was balancing a big career at the time. As I held my son, I looked at my mom bewildered by just how much love I was feeling! I remember saying to my mom, “You love me this MUCH?!” and then I worried about how I was going to balance it all and how quick my maternity leave would go (I know bloggers don’t get the luxury of a real maternity leave!)…ANYWAY…my mom told me that I would find that balance AND to always remember that the one thing we can’t get back is time. That stuck with me.
I had my second baby 4 years later and spent the next 18 years enjoying very fulfilling careers, but also leaving those jobs to go freelance when I needed more time with my kids. Always a balance.
Always go with your gut. And I so get it because I LOVE being a mom and I also LOVE my careers. Now that I’m an empty nester, I get to really dive in to my travel vlogging and morning show segments, but surprise…I’m still always trying to find a balance with the occasional needs of my young adults and the help my aging parents need at times.
So I guess what I’m trying to say in a very long-winded way (sorry about that) is I think that you are doing everything just right…one day at a time finding that balance and your new groove. I think you are killing it in every area and on the days when you feel out of sync, be kind to yourself as it all really does come together. My mantra is when my priorities are in order, things fall into place. That has worked well for me.
Congrats!!! Your family is beautiful and you absolutely glow, Katie!
congratulations! welcome to the world Senya! she’s beautiful. I enjoyed reading about your whole experience.
This is so exciting, Ben and Katie!! Congrats on your new baby girl! Also thank you for this longer post—definitely the details I love to hear from you both and in preparation for my own bundle this summer!