Smile, Lilly!

Oh I love this little girl! I love watching her sleep and all the funny faces she pulls.  Love her little smile! Here are a few of her newborn pictures.  Done by the amazing Amber Lintz Photography.

Lilly May's Arrival

She is finally here!

At my 37 week appointment I was already dilated to a 4 and my doctor was certain she would come sooner than her due date of October 4th.  He also let me know we would be out of town the following week and back October 2nd!  That made me a little nervous!!  Each day after that appointment I told Lilly she had to come early or right on time.  She decided to come early!

Friday, September 21 in the afternoon I started to get steady contractions.  They were about 15 minutes apart and not too horrible.  I kept thinking, if this is what labor contractions are.. this is nothing! However I knew it was only a matter of time until the big ones would start.  About 2AM, September 22 I started getting pretty bad contractions.  They were about 15 minutes apart and started to get closer.  About every 3o minutes or so JC would ask if we could go to the hospital yet, I would tell him they had to be at least 3-5 minutes apart before we could go.    Good thing we only live about 5 minutes from the hospital!

Finally when they were about six minutes apart I gave in and we headed over to the hospital at 5:30AM.  They put us in the observation room for a hour to see if they could admit me yet.  After a hour, I was still at a 4 and my contractions were still the same.  The doctor on call said he wanted to keep me, but the hospital will not induce new moms until they are at least 38 weeks... I was a few days from being 38 weeks.  So off we went back home to make breakfast and attempt to sleep.

As the day went on the contractions kept getting closer.  JC was at work and I was laying on the couch taking naps between each contraction and trying to survive as they started getting harder.  Thanks to my  contractions app on my phone, it made it so easy to keep track of where things were at and how they were progressing!  

Finally about 5:30PM- my parents took me to the hospital.  Again I was put in the observation room, still at a four and much harder contractions.  Patiently I waited for the hour to pass as my contractions began to be in my back... those hurt!  I was keeping JC updated through text and I told him I was probably going to be sent home again so not to worry about leaving work.  When the nurse came to check me I was at a 4+ and they decided to officially admit me into Labor & Delivery!

6:40PM My mom called JC to tell him to come to the hospital, I had a mini melt down and off to the Labor room we went.   By then my contractions were so painful and all in my back.  Luckily I only dealt with the bad ones for about a hour and forty-five minutes before I got the epideral.  Oh that was fantastic!  Once that was in, I was loving the experience.  JC got me a magical Strawberry Kiwi slushy and that made things even better.      

We watched a couple episodes of Scrubs as we waited and I even got in a couple hours of a nap.  Around 11:00pm the nurse came in and said it was time to push!

It was a crazy experience not being able to really feel the contractions but being told you were having one and needed to push.  Funny moment- my family and friends always comment on how smiley JC always is... so when I was pushing I had to watch the nurse because JC would make me giggle because he was watching and of course, had a big smile on his face!  At one moment I looked at him and he was smiling so big as the head started to crown and I started to giggle as I thought about how smiley he really is all the time and couldn't push through that contraction anymore.  I love him!

My contractions were about 3/4 minutes apart so I had pretty good breaks between each push.  Finally at 11:48PM she came out and had a full set of lungs right away!  What a neat experience!  I'm so grateful everything went so smooth and that JC was there with me the entire time.  He is such an amazing husband.  I love how caring, compassionate, and supportive he always is.  I know it wouldn't of been as great of an experience if I didn't have him right there helping me get through it.

Lilly is beautiful.  Hearing her scream and holding her so close was such an amazing moment.  She weighed 6 pounds 1 ounce and 18 inches.  She looks more like her dad and came with a head of hair... or should I say a mullet!

LOVE this picture!  It's my favorite!!

Maternity Pictures

This is for you, Rach!