Lillian's Birth Story

July 28th was a day full of choices. I generally like choices. These were ours:

a) Wait it out and hope I go in labor on my own. (read: Things I am not interested in.)
b) Wait until my due date and schedule an induction if nothing happens on its own. (read: No thanks.)
c) Cut to the chase and schedule my c-section. (read: Bingo.)

After deciding to schedule the operation, we were presented with a pair of choices...
a) wait a week (read: No.)
b) tomorrow (read: I should've packed a bag.)

So we schedule our appointment for the following day (7/29). Talk about making progress!

Now, you'd think someone who's 39 weeks pregnant would have a bag ready to go, right? Yeah, well I didn't. Not only am I starting to want to toss my cookies at the thought of having major surgery the next day as well as literally having the baby, now I have to pack a bag?! At least I wasn't running around like a chicken with it's head chopped off in labor throwing junk in a bag. Besides, do you know what even goes in a hospital bag? Clothes, a book, toiletries, a camera and all the necessary chargers. Know what most people bring? Their whole house. I was proud I crammed my clothing options (waistbands or no waistbands?!!??!?!) and my other things into one bag with a boppy pillow on top of it. I am such a winner.

Cut to the next day, where I'm laying on a real comfy bed in a smokin' hot gown, with a fantastical IV dripping fantastical things into my body, I asked my nurse to hook a cheeseburger up to my IV. Dead serious. After I begged her for a burger & chicken nuggets, Andrew says, "on a scale of 1 chicken nugget to 10 chicken nuggets, how hungry are you right now?" I was a 10 on the nugget scale.

I really enjoyed the company of the nurses while I was being prepped for the surgery, while poor Andrew was waiting out in the hallway. The doctors and nurses and whoever else is in that room (I like morphine) started making bets on the sex & weight of the baby. Andrew said he could hear me laughing from the hallway, while he was trying not to throw up. Poor guy.

Spinal taps apparently make my entire body numb from the neck down, which ended up being pretty cool... but not when I couldn't tell if i was breathing or not. I literally asked the doctor if I was breathing or not.

After Andrew came in, he hung out with my floating head and the nurses made small talk with us, and before we knew it, Dr. B. asked Andrew if he wanted to look and see the baby.

Dr. B.: Andrew, what is it?
Andrew: I'm looking for balls, looking for balls! I can't tell! No balls! It's a girl!

The folks who picked a girl in the pool were winners, and they held her up over the curtain for me to see and all I can remember thinking was how huge her cheeks were. Way cute. Super loud. Giant cheeks. They weighed her and got her swaddled and Andrew brought her over and I'm pretty sure we just stared at her and cried while she screamed her head off.

Lillian Margaret, tipping the scales at 9lbs 6oz, 21 inches. She's awesome.

So awesome in fact, that she spent the next week in the NICU hooked up to an IV of sugar water because she couldn't regulate her blood sugar levels.

The next day is when they make you stand up and move and shower and walk the halls. This is not a fun process, espcially when they do it before you have food. The food at our hospital is fantastic too, by the way. It really is (I'm serious). After a shower, I felt like a thousand bucks. After breakfast & a percoset, I felt like a cool million.

Lilly was in the NICU for the week getting an IV of sugar water, which finally regulated itself, but then she was tested for Jaundice because she was starting to yellow. By this point, she was able to be taken off the IV but had to be placed on a Wallabee blanket. Instead of putting the baby in the bed of lights with the eye protection, they have a blanket of lights that wraps around their belly and plugs into an outlet. We were thankful enough to have her out of the NICU and were able to keep her in our room with the blanket. After our lovely week-long stay in the hospital, we were allowed to go home! But. We had to bring the blanket with us and plug in the glow worm. The next day we had to bring her back to the hospital for blood work, and found out that her levels were fine. She made friends at the pediatrician's office with the ladies at the desk, and was given the all clear. Hot damn!

Lilly is pretty fantastic, and we're thrilled to have her here, puffy cheeks and all.

Here are one-week pictures I took of the nugget, and some of her nursery!