Four Big Weeks

New Mom Thoughts

My baby will be one month old on Wednesday, can you believe it? It is still so unreal to me that this little girl is ours, and that she was in my tummy up until a month ago.

This weekend my step mom Lisa came into town, and we had a great time doing nothing but drool over Lily. I think when people compliment your baby you're probably supposed to say, "Thank you", instead of, "I know", but I can't help it. Now that she's not inside of me I don't feel like I can take a whole lot of credit for how precious she is. Therefore I don't feel the need to be modest. When we did get out this weekend and people would ask if she was my baby it still felt so surreal to say yes.

I can stare at her for hours. I love to watch her little face as she sleeps and hear the funny little noises she makes. She's sleeping in a pack 'n play in our room right now, and there's something about having my whole little family in one room that is so special to me.

Last week we had Lily's two week check up and she had not gained as much weight as the doctor would have liked, so we had to go back in today. I should have relaxed and known that Lily does things on her own timetable, kind of like coming one week late. The doctor said she likes to see babies gaining 5-7 ounces a week and Lily gained 10 ounces this past week, so for now we are in the clear. She's now 8 pounds 13 ounces of soft, yummy smelling baby-ness.

I love watching Tim with Lily. Today he came home from school and she was napping on our bed next to me. He looked at her and said, "She is so adorable." I nodded. "I'm going to love her forever." Yes, yes we are.

For Lily's adoring fans

We had to get the three generations shot with my mom, Lily, and I. My mom kept us from going crazy the first week of Lily's life and even stayed longer than she had planned. We were so grateful for all her help and wished she could have stayed longer.

Today I almost punched this lady

I had a choice to make today:

1) Kill my dog for waking the baby that I had just spent 3 hours rocking and nursing to sleep.

2) Take the screaming babe to the mall to buy a noise machine.

Killing my dog seemed like a lot of work so I went to the Brookstone at the mall to get a noise machine like the one we have in our room.

The lady at the cash register kept asking me, in a million different ways, if I wanted to buy the optional warranty. I kept telling her "No", in the same way, so as to be consistent, easy to understand, and VERY CLEAR.

And yet she kept asking. At one point I wanted to grab her by her wearable massage vest, pull her across the register, and give her a real close look at the bags underneath my eyes. I would then have pointed to the item I was buying: AN INFANT SLEEP MACHINE, and to my now peacefully sleeping 2 week old in her stroller. I think that would have helped her understand. Instead I practically shoved my debit card in her face with a very fake smile, AFTER she asked me if I wanted to buy the stupid digital clock by the register.

Please.

Don't.

Mess.

I will post more pictures later - the camera's in the baby's room, and the baby is sleeping, so there's no way I'm going in there.

The Birthday Party

I was going to be induced on Wednesday, September 30th, at 6 am. On Tuesday I woke up at 4 am with light but consistent contractions. I couldn't sleep through them so I got up and started cleaning the house, which I had been planning on doing that day anyway to get ready for Lily's arrival the next day. As Tim left for school I asked if he could come home early just in case these contractions turned into labor. He came home around noon; I was starting to have some stronger contractions, but not enough to go to the hospital. We went for a walk, watched some movies, and every so often I would bounce on our exercise/birthing ball or try different positions to get through a contraction. I talked on the phone to Tim's mom and she said she could tell I was having a contraction because it sounded like I was trying to talk while holding my breath.

At 8:30 pm on Tuesday night I called my doctor. I knew I wasn't going to be able to sleep that night through the contractions but still felt they weren't strong enough to warrant going to the hospital. I wanted to see if I could be induced that night rather than waiting for the following morning. My doctor gives out her home number to her patients and I felt really dumb calling her, but was reassured after talking to my friend Katie - her three children were delivered by the same doctor. My doctor asked what my contractions were like, and I said I could still walk and talk through them, but that they were very consistent, no more than 5 minutes apart or so. She told me to wait until they got more intense and then go to the hospital.

Around 11:30 pm I decided it was time to go. I could still work through the contractions using different laboring positions (all very attractive, I must say - nothing like a 9 months pregnant woman rocking while squatting), but I wanted to see where I was. Tim had already taken Dirk over to our wonderful friends' house, so the pseudo child was taken care of. The cat had food and water. We had a bunch of funny movies borrowed from our friends Tim and Anna. I had eaten as much as possible while at home since I knew they wouldn't let me at the hospital. My house was clean (now it kind of looks like Babies R Us exploded in my living room). We were ready.

I was admitted at 12 am on the dot. They hooked me up to monitors to see how my contractions and baby's heart rate were doing. I did not love having to sit in bed through the contractions - I wanted to keep moving. They had me stay on them for 15 minutes, then let me walk around the unit with Tim. By 1 am the contractions were getting much more intense, and would sometimes come in triples - three strong contractions, right on top of each other. I felt fine in between the contractions as long as I was able to move around, but once I started getting those triples, I was done. "And now I would like my epidural."

Ironically the anesthesiologist was the only person that I had a slightly negative experience with. Mid-contraction he was asking me if I had any history of health problems, and I said, "No", but I guess he couldn't hear me. He then said, "Um, can you listen right now?" Really? I'm having a contraction! Anyway, I was dosed by 2:30 am and much more comfortable. I was checked shortly after and was dilated at 5-6 cm. Labor continued to progress well without me doing much other than watching hilarious movies with Tim (think anything with Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Will Ferrell), sleeping, oh and throwing up all that tasty food I'd eaten before.

By around 6 am I was at 9 1/2 cm, and baby's head was "right there", according to our wonderful delivery nurse. Unfortunately my doctor was not right there as she had a surgery at 8 am and would probably not be there until 8:30 am. Around 7:30 am they broke my water and I was at 10 cm, having some urges to push but trying to hold out for our doc. During this entire time, Lily's heartbeat was very steady and regular - the nurse said her tape looked like it came out of a textbook. This was so reassuring to me - Lily was coming into the world on her own time and wasn't too worried about it.

When my doctor came in at 8:30 my contractions had slowed some and I wasn't having any urges to push, so I was started on some Pitocin. A little after 11 am (and more sleeping, and more puking, and watching Blazing Saddles, and the nurse joking that I was going to "laugh this baby out"), the party started. I pushed for about 25 minutes and got to see my daughter. And she was huge to me! I could not get over her head of brown hair, either. Who would have guessed I would have an 8 lb 3 oz baby. My doc had estimated she was 7 and a quarter the week before.

The recovery was a little more difficult than the labor and delivery, partly because I was RAVENOUS and they wouldn't let me eat until I got to our recovery room, but my blood pressure kept dropping and I felt like I was going to pass out or throw up every time they tried to get me in the wheelchair. Finally they got me on a cart and into the recovery room and I had some bites of my long-awaited breakfast and...I threw up all over myself, AGAIN. That was sad.

The next two days were so sweet and wonderful though - Tim and I were able to focus on this beautiful little baby that had joined us. The whole experience was so incredible - it's difficult for me to sum it up in a word, or even words. We are so grateful that everything happened exactly as it did and that our little Miss Lily is here.

New Family Portrait

Hello everyone, it's me, Sara. Isn't my little girl pretty? I think so. Thank you so much for all the love and support and texts and calls and emails and visits over the past couple of days. We could not feel any more loved right now - really, thank you. I will update with more information about the "big birthday party" as my OB called delivery day (for those that want all that information), but I'll need a little time.

We just came home today and Lily started spitting up, which got me so nervous, but the nurse says it's normal. Relief. Off to feed the baby bird again.

A Few More Photos

Sara with her 5 minute old baby girl

"Can someone please clean my face?"

Lily was pretty tired after her busy morning

Lily, hamming it up for the camera

Lot's of napping for this girl

MANY more to come...