Lydia's Arrival

Hello fellow bloggers and blog readers! Thank you so much for rejoicing with us at this special time in our lives. We are SO happy to have Lydia here, and it's so fun to share our joy with you! Lydia's arrival was a special event, and so I am excited to record how everything happened.

On Monday I went walking for hours with my in-laws, and I finished up by eating a spicy burrito doused--nay, drenched--in tabasco sauce, all in the hopes that these efforts would yield some real labor pains. To my dismay, at the end of the day, I felt great. Not a pang in sight. Sorely disappointed, I retired to bed at 1am.

One hour later, I woke up with some of the worst pain I have ever experienced. It was too good to be true! In between contractions, I felt so great that I doubted whether I was experiencing the real deal, but an hour later we went to the hospital. Abe kept assuring me I was in labor, but I didn't believe him until the doctor at the hospital told me that after a mere hour of contracting at home I was already 5 cm dilated! How very exciting.

By that time, the pain was so bad that I was begging for an epidural and vomiting everywhere. Abe's favorite part to tell occurred right after I threw up all over the place. He brought us two cans of ginger ale and was just about to open his when I insisted that was wasteful and that he share mine. It didn't occur to me at the time how gross my request was, but he dutifully complied. What a husband!

Abe had to leave the room for the hour that it took for them to put the IV and epidural in. (He faints at the sight of needles.) It took exceptionally long because I kept moving around when I was supposed to be sitting still, and at one point, I doubted they would get the epidural inserted in time. The nurse had the same concern; she called in a bunch of people right before they finally got the epidural in because she thought I was about to start pushing. 

Finally, they got the epidural in. After that point, labor turned from agonizing to AWESOME. Really--after I stopped feeling pain, I was overcome with excitement. We had such a great team of nurses, and the room was charged with anticipation and joy. I could not wait to meet Lydia, and I couldn't keep myself from grinning nonstop. At one point, one of the nurses told me to stop smiling while I was pushing because I needed to focus all of my muscle energy on the pushes--but I couldn't stop! It was too wonderful to know I was about to meet my daughter.

Plus, I was pretty much in love with everyone in the room. The nurse who helped me through the epidural process stayed 2 hours after her shift ended so that she could help me through pushes and meet Lydia. One of the other nurses just happened to be my old Sunday School teacher from my days at the First Presbyterian Church of Evanston--and she regaled me with tales about my dad and brother between pushes. The other med students in the room were so enthusiastic, our doctor was amazing, and, of course, Abe was the best support team/cheerleader ever. I felt so happy to bring Lydia into the world surrounded by such a wonderful collection of lovely people!

And I could still move around and feel the pressure of contractions, so pushing was a great experience. At one point, the doctor gave me a pep talk and told me I could have Lydia out in five minutes or two hours--depending on how hard I pushed. Two contractions and five minutes later, she was out!

She is beautiful. Her head was so full of hair that the doctor and nurses joked that they would start braiding between pushes. She looks like a little surfer baby because her dark brown hair has light brown highlights at the tips. So cute! And we can't tell what color her eyes are; they look grey/blue, but I think they will change. She was 7 lbs 9 oz, and 20 1/4 inches long. Yay for not birthing a 10 pound baby!! She is just adorable, and even though she is every bit as vocal as Abe and I expected (having both been quite vocal ourselves when we were her age), we are in love with her.

Here is a picture of Abe calming Lydia:

And when Lydia first came out:

We have more pictures, but at the moment I can't access them. (I have been up all night with Lydia, and I finally figured out that the bassinet isn't working. The only thing to do is keep her with me if I hope to have her sleep. So she's sleeping in front of me while I type away; I am scared to fall asleep with her in the bed until I learn more about co-sleeping from the doctor.)

She is having her newborn pics taken this weekend, so hopefully next week we'll have a deluge of Lydia shots!