welcome Lila!

Announcing Miss Lila Addison!!

Wow, a lot can change in two weeks! Lila Addison was born on Wednesday, March 10 at 12:38am. She was 7lbs 11oz at birth and 20 inches long. Okay, so let's back track a little bit. I went for my weekly doctor's appointment on Tuesday, March 9 and I was going to beg him to induce me sometime before the weekend. I. WAS. DONE. I don't know how many of you are women who have ever been pregnant, but for those of you who are not familiar with the feeling, there comes a point where you will say or do anything to get that baby out.

After listening to all my symptoms and checking to see how dilated I was (4cm!!), my doctor stepped out of the room and I heard him on the phone with one of his fellow attendings. He walked back in, looked at me and said the best words I have ever heard: "We're admitting you today. Let's head on upstairs to Labor & Delivery." I am not exaggerating when I say I jumped up and hugged the man.

Thank God my dad had driven me to my appointment so he started making frantic phone calls while my nurse took me upstairs to be admitted. I was promptly told by all the nurses at the nurses station that I was entirely too happy looking to be checking in to Labor & Delivery. To which I just smiled wider.

They started me on Pitocin (to induce labor) at 5pm and until 10pm I was still in fairly good spirits and dealing with the contractions well. Brian ran over from work (poor thing had already worked a full day!), my mom ran over from her job at the airport, my sister hopped on a flight in Florida, and Brian's family jumped in the car to drive up from Gastonia.

At 10:45pm, I hit transition and got the full body shakes. To which I said: "Bring on the epidural!" They got in my room fairly quickly for that and then at 11:50pm my water broke, the nurse checked me and said "Don't push!" and about 15 people in scrubs ran in the room. My sister Katelyn got to make a dramatic entrance, running up the hall yelling "I'm here!!" literally as we started the delivery.

Then finally, after so many prayers, so much uncertainty, so many scary doctors appointments and emergency room visits, so many sleepless nights, so much begging...at 12:38am, Lila Addison made her debut and we haven't stopped smiling since.

Lila is doing amazing at home and is a very calm baby. She really only cries when she needs something and just hangs out and makes baby noises and faces the rest of the time. She is sleeping in fairly long spurts in the night, with a couple of hours in between feeding. She is also feeding like a champ and had already passed her birth weight last Wednesday (after dropping 8%, which is normal, in the days after her birth). Brian and I are feeling pretty good, just getting used to the new schedule. Did you know there is really boring/horrible TV on at 3:45am?? We are looking forward to getting Lila on a more predictable schedule (with longer night time sleeping hours) over the next month or two. But for now, we can both take naps during the day and take turns rocking and burping her at night (too bad I have the whole feeding job :-)I promise to try to be better about about posting with lots of pictures and Lila stories. Crazy as it is to believe, its really hard to write a blog post with a newborn baby. It has in fact taken me 3 hours just to post this one!

And when she wraps her hand around my finger
Oh it puts a smile in my heart
Everything becomes a little clearer
I realize what life is all about

It's hanging on when your heart has had enough
It's giving more when you feel like giving up
I've seen the light
It's in my daughter's eyes
~"In My Daughter's Eyes" by Martina McBride