Wednesday, March 31, 2010

3 years ago today...

...I promised to spend the rest of my life with my best friend. 3 years later that promise means more to me today than I ever imagined it would. The overwhelming love I felt when I said "I do" has mulitipied, and continues to multiply every single day. It's so surreal to think how our lives have changed for the better in 3 short, but glorious, years. Only God knew how absolutely breathtaking our lives would be together, and I thank Him for that every day.


What started as a mere "crush" 5 years ago....

evolved into something remarkable... and a year later we were engaged.

Our beautiful wedding overlooking river rapids. (Which I barely noticed - We were completely oblivious to anything but each other) :)


Then my life started... and my husband gave me the ultimate gift... our beautiful daughter.



Only time will tell what's in store for us for the next 3 (or 50) years, but as long as I have Jack by my side, I know it will be glorious. Happy Anniversary babe!!

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

You're going places baby!

Thanks to Kendra @ Loving Baby M for this award!




The rules are simple, you have to blog about where you want to be in 10 years and then tag 10 fabulous blogs that are worthy of the award... so let's get to it.
Where do I see myself in 10 years?...


10 years.... seems so far away but I know these next ten years will fly by. Our baby girl will be 10, in 4th grade, and I pray she's healthy and happy. We'll hopefully have 1 or 2 more little ones running around. I'd be happy if we were in the same house, working the same careers, because I'm happy where we are with both of those. Jack and I will be celebrating our 13th wedding anniversary, and we'll celebrate being together for almost 15 years. I hope we'll get the chance within the next 10 years to travel, to give Lily the chance to explore the world and enhance her childhood memories.


On to the tagging! Im nomitating:
Melissa @ The Boltons
Sarah Lynn @ Amour de Bebe

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Newborn pics: My sweet, sweet girl.

Here are a few proofs the photographer posted on her blog. My sweet Lily. :) She did so good during the shoot. I think she likes having her picture taken.... at least I hope so. ;)

On another note: She's three weeks old today! I can't believe it!







Saturday, March 20, 2010

She's all girl.

Hair bows, headbands, baby legs, and shoes, shoes, shoes. Theses are a few of her [my] favorite things. ;) I'm enjoying this time when she's not yet interested in pulling out her adorable hair bows and tugging at the headbands. I know that day will come... shortly... but for now she'll be sporting some sort of accessory no matter where she goes. After all, she's a girl. :)








Tuesday, March 16, 2010

A new "investment"

Having a baby means... lots and lots of pictures. My old point and shoot just wasn't cutting it. It was a good camera, but when it comes to capturing my squirming baby girl, I wanted something great. So I did a little research and talked Jack into making an "investment" purchase. We went and played with both a Canon and Nikon, and decided on the Nikon D3000!

I love it! Of course, I have absolutely no idea how the heck to use it, but we'll get there eventually. Even in auto mode it does a fantastic job. Here are a few "auto" pics from our new toy -enjoy!






Friday, March 12, 2010

We have a belly button!

Is there anything more adorable than a baby's belly button? I think not... :)

Lily is now sporting a naked little belly button. 1 week and 1 day old. That's one cute tummy. :)

Monday, March 8, 2010

My birth story...

I'd played it out in my head a thousand times. A thousand different scenarios, possibilities, ways that I'd imagined the events of labor and delivery unfolding. All the mental preparation in the world could not have prepared me for how our beautiful little girl would enter this world. Call me naive, but for some unknown reason it truly never crossed my mind that I could possibly have a c-section. Everything about my pregnancy had been perfect thus far, and my biggest fears were along the lines of my water breaking in public or not being able to handle the epidural. Boy was I wrong...


Wednesday, March 3rd - On Tuesday the doctor had informed me of my progress (3cm/90% effaced) and we'd scheduled an induction on Wednesday, March 10th since my sweet girl was projected to be so big. It was great news, but having hardly any contractions on Wednesday I was feeling like the induction would be the day we'd meet our baby. I was okay with that. I had very light, random contractions which I assumed to be braxton hicks off and on at work, but nothing note-worthy. Jack and I made bacon cheddar french fries and pizza for dinner...yes, we're healthy like that... and decided on an after dinner bath to relax. Normal pregnancy procedure, always pee before getting in the bath tub. Every pregnant woman knows the moment you step into the tub without peeing first, you'll have to go. So I went to the toilet, pulled my pants down, and almost didn't make it because (at the time I assumed) my bladder was seriously having a moment. I laughed it off, joking with Jack how attractive that must be, me almost peeing myself. I crawled into the bath tub and immediately felt a strong "pop" sensation. I thought Ms. Lily got mad and kicked the snot out of me. That's when I realized exactly what everyone had described. Sitting in the water I could feel myself gushing fluid. I screamed at Jack to get out of the tub! How embarrassing! I stood up and it gushed, and gushed, and gushed. I soaked through two huge pads trying to get dressed, sat on the toilet for almost 10 minutes, and finally decided to get a trash bag for me to sit on and head to the hospital. Mom in tow, we started the journey. I started having painful contractions as soon as we left the house. Surprisingly I remained calm through all of this. I called family members, breathed through the contractions, and prepared myself mentally for what was about to happen. Or so I thought.

We made it the hospital around 8:45 p.m. and were taken straight to a room. By this point my contractions were hell. Just when they hit the point where I honestly thought they couldn't get any worse, they did. The nurse came in around 9:30 to check me, and said I was between 2-3 cms but 100% effaced. What?! I didn't think you could go backwards! I was 3cms dilated yesterday!! I chalked it up to her being new (even though I have no idea if she was or not) and continued to suffer through the contractions. They started me on Stadol to ease the pain. It did nothing for the pain, just made me fall asleep in between contractions. Finally, in between 1:30 - 2:00, I'd progressed close enough to 4 cm they gave me my epidural. Let me tell you. All the worrying about how I would manage the pain of the epidural was for nothing! It was the easiest part of the entire experience. I was in heaven! The doctor said that the epidural would work wonders for the contractions, but there would come a point during labor (transition) when the pain from pressure would hurt just as bad as the contractions. They would have to start a different medication for that, since it was different nerves that were affected. My contractions were painless until around 4:00 am, and then the pressure kicked in full force. I took this as good news - I thought we were finally in transition. (For those wondering, transition starts when you've dilated 6-7 cms) I buzzed the nurse, and 30 minutes later she came in to check my progress. 5 cms. Per her words, that was stretching it. I just knew this was still the beginning of what looked like an extremely long labor. The only thing getting me through my disappointment and pain was the sound of my baby girl’s heart beating away. I could labor until the end of time, just as long as I could hear that beautiful sound. The nurse ordered a different pain medicine for the pressure, which took the edge off and made it manageable. I continued to labor this way until around 8:00 am, and the nurse finally came back in to check me. They'd mentioned when we arrived that they wouldn't be doing a lot of internals since my water had already broken and they didn't want to risk infection. Talk about disappointing... 4 hours later and I was still at 5cm. She said the baby just wasn't dropping like she should be. That, along with my extremely slow dilation, prompted her to put me on my side to labor. She turned me on my left side, and left the room. It wasn't 10 minutes later I had the biggest scare of my life so far. My baby's heartbeat disappeared. I panicked immediately, and my mom ran out to the nurses station to let them know what was going on. I kept telling myself it was just the position I was in, and the monitor just wasn't picking it up. Unfortunately that wasn't the case. The nurse came rushing in and threw me on my back, frantically searching with the monitor for her heartbeat. She threw me to my right side, and finally the heartbeat came back to the monitor. It was around 78 bmp when it finally appeared, and slowly climbed back to the 130's. Looking at the monitor showed that I'd been having a continuous contraction for well over 5 minutes. She stuck me with some sort of medicine to stop the contractions and called the doctor. The medicine worked and my contractions went back to 4-5 minutes apart almost instantly. The doctor made it to the hospital within 15 minutes and came straight into my room. She went over what just happened with the nurse and checked me. I was a 4. She said my cervix wasn't cooperating at all and starting to swell shut. The baby's head was tilted in an awkward position, and on top of that, my pelvis appeared to be entirely too small for delivery vaginally. With all that said, she needed to do an emergency c-section to avoid the risk of her heartbeat dropping/disappearing again. I was in shock. My biggest fear was becoming a reality. There was no escaping it though; we had to do what needed to be done. I kept re-living the moment we couldn't find her heartbeat, and it all became okay to me. She needed to be out right then, and I needed to suck up my fears and stay calm for my sweet girl. So I did. They wheeled me into the OR, prepped me for surgery, and that's when I got sick. I was sick from the anesthetic, from all the emotions running rampant, from knowing that our lives were going to change in a matter of moments. Jack came in not 5 minutes later, and within 8 minutes, the doctor announced she was coming out. We heard her cry. It wasn't a scream; it was the sweetest little whimper I've ever heard. I looked at Jack and he was tearing up, and I cried. My entire life I've never experienced anything that could hold a candle to the feeling I felt listening to my baby girl make her entrance into this world. This was the product of mine and Jack's love for each other. Our beautiful relationship had developed into a family in an instance. She was, and is, the most beautiful thing I've ever laid eyes on. She has her daddy's nose and she's sporting a head full of mommy's hair.

Liliana Audrey made her debut March 4th, 2010 at 9:52 am. The moment I realized life's meaning.

Recovery has been... I'll just say do-able. I'm extremely swollen and sore from laboring 13 hours, and I have pain at the incision site (which is to be expected). All in all, I'd go through 10000x worse every single day if it meant having my baby girl in my arms. I'm so deeply in love...


              


Sunday, March 7, 2010

I have someone I'd like you to meet...

My sweet, sweet baby girl! I'm exhausted and just got home this afternoon, but I promise lots of pictures and my crazy, unexpected birth story shortly. Until then, I'll leave you with this picture straight from the oven... here is my baby girl, my life:




Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Sneak Peek - Maternity Pictures

Here's a sneak peek from our maternity session a few weeks ago:






38 Weeks :)

38 glorious (and some not so glorious) weeks of pregnancy... and here we are! I'm having the most emotional week of my life so far, with being so ready for pregnancy to be over and for us to finally meet our little girl and finding out that next Wednesday will be the latest we'll have to wait until this amazing journey comes to a new beginning. It's a little bittersweet in a sense. I've had my rough weeks, but all in all this pregnancy has been an enjoyable and easy one. I thank God everyday for what he's blessed us with so far. As much as I'd like to complain sometimes about my painful feet and leg swelling, the fact that I have to struggle to wipe because my belly is too big to manuever around, and how Jack has to help me with the simplest tasks like rolling over, standing up, or God forbid bending down if I've dropped something, I stop myself and think about the fact that God has allowed us to experience this miracle that not everyone will get to experience. How He has given us a constant reminder of His greatness. It's all becoming so surreal... we will meet our little girl within a week. Until then (who am I kidding, I'm sure this is only the beginning!) I'll cry at any song that mentions the word "baby", and every time I look in the mirror or feel her kick my emotions will get the best of me. What a wonderful feeling this is. :)

**How far along? 38 Weeks

**Total weight gain/loss: Around 43 total.


**How big is baby?: She's measuring a whopping 8 - 8 1/2 lbs.


*Maternity clothes? I have maybe 2 shirts that cover my belly. Oh well... no one has dared to say anything... they know better. ;)

**Stretch marks? They're like kudzu. I hate them.


**Sleep: It's getting a little ridiculous with the pee trips. haha - I'm up like 6 times a night now.


**Best moment this week: Scheduling baby girl's eviction date!


**Movement: She responds to her daddy's voice (and I melt).

**Food cravings: Does craving drinks count? I feel like I can't get enough to drink! It has to be something light too, not like orange juice or milk.


**Gender: Sweet baby girl!


**Labor Signs: Contractions are getting more intense, but nothing really timable yet obviously!


**Belly Button in or out? It looks so gross! It's waaaay out there.


**What I am looking forward to: Meeting our baby girl. :)


**Weekly Wisdom: I told you I'd tell you if all the old wives' tales were a joke or not... my opinion? Partially. Well, all of them except one, and I'm not going into detail about that one. I'll let you figure it out on your own. ;)


**Milestones: 3 cm's, 90% effaced... I call that a milestone! hehe



Tuesday, March 2, 2010

We have an eviction date!

I'll post my 38 week update later this afternoon, but I wanted to give a quick update from my weekly appointment today.

Lily is still measuring pretty big at 8 - 8 1/2 lbs. My BP is perfect, I think it was 110/80. GBS test came back negative (yay!) and everything else looks pretty good. My swelling has definitely not gone down, in fact my calves have gotten 10x worse than last week.

So for the good news! I'm dilated 3 cm's, and 90% effaced! :) I know this could mean everything or absolutely nothing, but my hopes are still up. The doctor had a serious talk about how big Lily was getting and she didn't want me trying to push out a 9 1/2 lb baby, so we scheduled an induction for next Wednesday if she doesn't make her grand entrance before then. A WEEK FROM TOMORROW! Really?! Now I'm starting to freak out.