Life According to Lily

Lily is now 2 1/2 weeks old and she has changed so much!! We went to the doctor for a weight check and she is up to 8 lbs 1 oz. They were very happy with that. She's a good little eater and has started growing her Buddha belly! My life these days completely revolves around Lily, and I love it. We've been lucky with her sleeping. She sleeps all day and she gives us great stretches at night. I think she gets her sleeping habits from me...I never could get enough naps in a day. :)

Everyone kept telling us, wait until she hits 2 weeks and realizes she was born...Unfortunately they were all right. It seems like she found her lungs when she hit 2 weeks. If she's awake, she's crying, so we're really lucky that she likes to sleep a lot. I put a call into the doctor today because she just seems like she's in pain when she's crying and it breaks my heart! Lily might be a colicky baby, but I think she has tummy problems. Too much gas! We'll have to see what they say. We have pretty much tried holding her in every position possible and nothing seems to work. Any tips??

Despite all the crying, I love being at home with her and I know Ryan wishes he could stay home too. He's been very busy at work so he's had some long days, but she's all his when he gets home! I hope you all have been enjoying the pictures I've sent out. We take a ridiculous amount of her and love to show her off! I can't wait to see how much more she changes in the next couple of weeks. We'll keep everyone posted!

Grandpa Allen

Grandma Gladie

Grandpa Smith

Jay
Meredith

Lily Paige

Ward, Maggi, Lily, and Me

Grandmom Suzie

Lily and Daddy

Happy in the bouncy seat
Carrie
Caren
Jenni

Pictures

Welcome Lily!

Getting checked out

Daddy's Little Girl

Getting weighed - 7lbs. 8 oz.

Lily and Aunt Meghan

Lily and Uncle Jesse

Lily and Aunt Kellie

Lily and Aunt Jen

Lily and cousin Lacey

Lily and Aunt Amy

Lily and Dr. Amerson - Thanks for a great delivery!

Uncle Jesse came for another visit

so did Aunt Meghan

Lily and Aunt Maggi - Thanks for the great dinner!

Mommy and Lily

Headed home - First car ride and I slept through it all!

Thanks Jen for the awesome brownies and decorations!

First Family Picture

Trying out the bouncy seat

First morning at home :)

Lily Paige has arrived!!!!

Okay I know everyone has been waiting patiently for the blog update...Soooo I started having contractions Saturday morning at 4am. I had them all day, but they were very mild, so we went about our day and just kept track of the time in between them and their intensity. Jay, Kellie, and Nola came over to watch the PSU game and Kellie made us all dinner. By the end of dinner the contractions started getting more intense, but they were still 8-10 minutes apart. Around 10:30pm they got worse and closer together. They still weren't awful, but they were 5-6 minutes apart so we figured we should go to the hospital. We went to the hospital around midnight but they sent us back home because I was only a fingertip dilated.

We got home around 2:30 and tried to get some sleep. Ryan stayed downstairs so I could have the bed to myself, but he was up and down so many times checking on me he should have just stayed. Between 3 and 4 I really started to feel the pain. By 4 I was dying in pain and didn't think I'd be able to handle anymore so I told Ryan to get me to the hospital asap.

We went back to the hospital and thankfully I was admitted around 6:30. I was so nervous that they were going to send us back home that I had myself in a total panic and they kept yelling at me to control my breathing. I was 1-2 cm dilated so they hooked me up to the IV and I got my epidural. It was a lifesaver! My original plan was to try and go natural on the birth, but let me tell you, I will never go without an epidural! It made the experience so much more pleasurable.

The contractions slowed down a bit after the epidural and it took 6 hours to dilate 2 more cm, so they put me on pitocin to speed the contractions along. Ryan and Meghan spent the day with me in the labor and delivery room. It was actually really relaxing (since I was on drugs) and we got to watch the whole Eagles game. Every once in a while the nurse came in to up my pitocin and at that point I was dilating much faster. Every hour and half I was 2 more cm and then the last 2 cm came in less than an hour. At 6:15 my doctor came to check, said I was 10 cm, and broke my water. That's when Meghan left and went in the waiting room with Ryan's family.

Dr. Amerson quickly went over the rules of pushing and I started pushing at 6:20. After my first round of pushing they could all see her hair sticking out. After the second round her head was right there and after the third round Lily was here!! It only took ten minutes and Lily was officially born at 6:31pm on September 7! The doctor couldn't believe I pushed her out so quickly, especially since it was my first baby. She came flying out and Ryan announced it's a girl! I was in complete shock and awe. It was really amazing. Lily and Ryan went to the nursery while I got stitched up and she was weighed and measured. She weighed 7 lbs 8 ozs and is 20.5 in long. When we left the hospital she was down to 7 lbs 1 oz which is normal for babies to lose weight like that.

After quite a few hours we finally headed to the recovery room. By the time we got there the only people waiting to meet Lily were Meghan, Jesse, and Kellie. Everyone else got too tired. Sorry about that! I was in some pain afterwards, so it took longer than normal to move to the recovery room. I was so glad to get there and be able to hold my little girl. We stayed in the hospital until Tuesday morning. While we were Lily had lots of tests done and she passed all of them with flying colors. She was really great the whole time we were there.

So now we are all home and doing great. I'm feeling better each day and last night we actually got more sleep than I expected we would. I think Ryan was a little surprised and I think he got less sleep than he thought he would! He's been fabulous though. He has been taking great care of me and Lily. Bailey was a little confused when she came home to see this new intruder, but she's slowly getting used to her. Bailey won't really come near us when we are holding Lily, but we'll work on that. We go to the pediatrician tomorrow for a check up. I'm very anxious to see what they sat. I think that's about everything for now. I'll get some pictures up soon!

No Baby Yet - Not Even Close...

Well we kept very busy this weekend and past week hoping that would bring the baby along early, but no such luck! Saturday we went to Miami Mike's, a bar near here, to watch Penn State kick off the season against Coastal Carolina. We won 66-10, so we're off to a great start! Meghan met us at the bar and then came and spent the night at our house. Thanks for hanging out Meg! On Sunday we spent the day at Maggi and Matt's engagement party. The party was at Matt's mom's house and it was gorgeous! We had a great time hanging out with Maggi, Ward, and Ryan - all friends from high school. Maggi and Matt, we can't wait for the wedding!!!

To celebrate Labor Day we went out and bought me a new car! We ended up getting a Hyundai Tucson which is a smaller SUV. I picked out silver with a gray interior and I love it! We traded in the Honda, which I was sad to get rid of, but so happy for my SUV finally! Then we headed over to Jon and Becky's house to watch the Rutger's game and found out that they're expecting a baby! We couldn't be happier for you guys! Their little one is due at the end of April.

Even after all of these activities I still wasn't in labor so we thought babysitting Madelyn on Tuesday would do it for me! Amy had to head back to work, so I went to their house bright and early to hang out with Maddie. She was absolutely adorable and very well behaved. When it was time to take a nap, she wrapped her little arms around my belly and used it as a pillow. It was precious!

After the day of babysitting Ryan and I headed to the doctor's hoping for some good news. Dr. Amerson walked in clapping her hands asking if we were ready to have this baby. She did an internal and said, "You're not going to believe this." I told her to not even say it. I knew what was coming. I was not dilated AT ALL!!! She was just as shocked as we were. The baby dropped 4 weeks ago and still NOTHING! Luckily she said that could all change in a day, we just don't know when things will get started. So, we have an appointment set up for next Tuesday. Hopefully we won't need it! We'll keep you all posted though. :)