Labor and Delivery FOR REAL this time

To start off, Mark had a birthday on Wednesday and was so nice to celebrate it here at the hospital with me and the kids. We ordered some Thai Food which was finished off by some mini cupcakes that Jane was sweet to give Mark for his birthday. Well, sure enough our sweet little baby girl decided she wanted to have her birthday 3 days after dad's.

 His work also treated him to this birthday cake!

Now for the details on delivery....

Friday April 15th-

Friday morning my doctor dropped by my room to check up on me. My bleeding had slowed down a lot the past 2 days and as the doctor likes to put it - everything was quiet and boring. ;) She said, ok lets keep it that way.  She also informed me that we will plan on deliver dates being either May 3rd, 4th, or 5th. It felt great to finally have a date to look forward to that was less then 3 weeks away!!!

 Since I didn't have any visitors that day and was feeling rather hospital bound, I asked my nurse if she would wheel me down to the 4th floor atrium for a change of environment. It's a nice open space with sky light windows and they even had some comfy chairs to sit on with leg rests. Perfect place to read the new book I just started, All the light we can not see.

9:30 pm-

In the evening I was knitting away on my 3rd hat. I thought I might as well make a matching one for Chantel since I have extra yarn.  I was sitting on a chair by the side of my bed watching a show while knitting when all the sudden a ginormous amount of clear liquid burst out of me, all over the floor. It was REALLY SCARY at first because I thought it was blood and it just kept on coming out. I wasn't right near my call button so I had to get up off the chair, walk to the call button while screaming for help. I knew from past experiences, that often they don't answer right away from the bed side call button, but do respond immediately from the bathroom call button. So when no one came, I walked to the bathroom and pulled the emergency cord. It was rather clear to me that my water broke and not just by a little bit. If felt like a gallon came out and there were puddles all over the floor. It just wouldn't stop. I'm really glad it wasn't blood!

From there we knew I was going to deliver that night so once I was safe in bed, I immediately called Mark. Thanks to his new Vespa and friends on call willing to help out then and there, he didn't take long getting here. Truman was not so excited about him leaving for the night, but that is only expected.  [A big thanks to Tory Perry for spending the night at our house and taking Truman to soccer that next morning, plus keeping him all day. Also a big thanks to Kristi Winders for taking Chantel all day. We feel so blessed by all the friend that have reached out to us and come to the rescue.]

Mark arrived at the hospital a little after 10:00 and we waited for about an hour until they wheeled me into operating room to prep for  c-section (due to 2 previous c-sections).  I think the hour wait had to do with them wanting to give me penicillin before the delivery.

That evening, which actually led to early morning I went from crying and screaming (due to the pain of the IV fluid going in my hand and the burning stinging sensation it left all up the arm) to smiles of joy when I heard baby's voice and got to kiss her cute cheeks.

 The name we have chosen is, Lila Faye Green. We love the name Lila (pronounced, Lie-Luh), which is also the name of Mark's mother's mother (with a slight variation from her primary spelling, "Lyla"--just our preference, and the way Mark's Grandma spelled it at one point in her life). Faye is Liz's Mother's middle name.

*We are so grateful for our mothers and love that we could pay tribute to both sides.

When we told our kids the name we had chosen, Chantel's reaction was pretty funny. She said, "No, because I have a friend Lila in my class." She cracks me up and I'm sure she will warm up to the name. Truman seemed happy with it. 

Lila Faye Green was born at 33 weeks and 6 days
April 16, 2016 (and happens to be the 16th grandchild for my parents)
@12:07 am
5 lbs 1 oz
17 3/4 inch long

I got to hold her and nurse her for my first time from 5:30-6:40 this evening.  I tried to make it down to the nicu earlier, but my body wasn't ready for it after passing out in the bathroom. It was really scary and I was in tears as the nurses and Mark walked me back to my bed. Mark said the same thing happened the day after giving birthday to Chantel which I vaguely remember. So after a few more hours of resting, I tried to get up again and was successful. Mark escorted me by wheel chair down to the nicu before he took off to rescue the kids from their all day play dates. To my surprise, she nursed really well, so I plan to make it back to the 9:00 pm and possibly the 12:00 feedings. We'll see how my body does tonight.  C-section recoveries suck, but the joy of holding our new baby makes it all worth it.

This has been the best day I've had in a long time!!! The joy that comes in holding a new born child makes me realize that all those miserable magnesium days were well worth it.