The Lily Chronicles

I honestly thought that I was doomed to wait until being induced for the baby to come, but she had a mind of her own and contractions started Friday morning (8/3), around 7:30 am.  I might not have mentioned anything to Kevin, since we've had a couple false alarms in the past couple weeks.  Instead, I just tracked the contractions and ran the errands I had set for myself.  Kevin came home from work about 5:15, and around 6:00, my water broke.  We gathered our stuff and were off to the hospital.

Here are some things that I learned.

1) Contractions are the most painful thing I've ever experienced in my life.
2) Epidurals are a lifesaver (I got mine at 11 pm, slept for 2 1/2 hours, and was ready to start pushing by 3:45 am.  Thirty-five minutes later, Lily made her appearance.  Better living through pharmaceuticals!).
3) The labor & delivery people expect you to hold your breath for an abnormal length of time while you push.
4) You lose any pretense of dignity the minute you walk into the hospital to have a baby.  And you never get it back.  You do regain some of your dignity when you come home.  But not much.

Towards the end of the delivery, I spiked a fever of 103.1, and since it was so high, it earned Lily an automatic trip to the NICU for 24 hours for observation and heavy-duty antibiotics.  She never had a fever, and is perfectly fine.  It was just one of those fluke things that called for precautionary measures.  I earned my own IV and antibiotics for 24 hours, even though the fever broke an hour after Lily was born.  So, Lily had her first babysitting experience, and Kevin and I were eased into the whole parenting thing.  And we stayed in the hospital an extra day as a result.  It was not a horrible way to start off.  Annoying, but not horrible.

We are now home and figuring out this whole parenting thing without nurses and other professional people to tell us how stuff works.  My parents are here helping us out for the week (they're cooking dinner as I type.  Awesome!  And they cleaned the house while we were in the hospital.  Double awesome!).  But I have some temporary live-in support while I begin my attempt at parenthood, so thanks Mom & Dad!

So there it is.  The beginning of the Lily Chronicles.  There will be undoubtedly be many more to come.  But we have a few photos to share with you.  So enjoy.  And welcome to the world, Lily Marie!

                                                   (The photos are a little out of order.  Bear with me.)

Brand new baby!  8/4/12, 4:20 am

Back from NICU, and Dad decides to start taking LOTS of photos.  Get used to it, kid.

All dressed up and ready to go home! 8/6/12

We were STARVING and decided on a very low-key celebratory dinner on Saturday.

Chillin' in the NICU.  Hooked up to all sorts of cords, monitors, and other things.