The Big Day

Monday, July 27, 2009

8:00am

So my due date was July 25th and I was getting a tad anxious. Okay, quite anxious. We had just recently moved back into our house (like a few days prior) and I was so thankful that we had made it through all the floor staining, cabinet painting and wall painting before Miss Lily decided to make her grand entrance into the world. Over the weekend I was feeling some pretty strong contractions but nothing real regular or close together. We knew it wasn't time to go yet. So on Monday morning as I sat at home alone with nothing to do but think (because I was too big and uncomfortable to do much else) I started to worry that I hadn't felt Lily move much. So I waited and tried to count her movements but still, nothing and I was worried. It got to me so much that I decided I'd just go to Mercy and have things checked out.

10:00am

When I got to Mercy I signed in and they asked me a few questions, one being, when my due date was. I told them it had already passed, that it was last Saturday. They seemed a bit more concerned at that point. They got me to a room and shortly after I was so relieved to hear that baby girl's heartbeat just pumpin away. I called Houston to let him know there was no need to come, everything was fine. But then they noticed I was having contractions about 2 minutes apart. I could feel them but they didn't seem very strong to me. They wanted to keep me hooked up and watch things for a little while. The nurses came in to check on me a while later. They told me they thought I should go ahead and have the baby since I was already here. Huh? You can do that? They acted like it was no big deal and left the room to call my doctor. I laid there a little stunned and before I knew it they came back and said my doctor agreed and that we'd just go ahead and have a birthday party today. I wish I could have seen my face. It took a little while for that to actually sink in. It's like I wasn't sure if this was real and really happening.

11:00am

Before I knew it I was being wheeled to my room. The delivery room. Yes, the one in which I would soon be giving birth. That one. I was so excited and it all just seemed to be happening so fast. I called Houston as soon as I got to the room. That was definitely a very cherished, memorable moment. I could hear the excitement in his voice when he said, "Really, today?". I could hear that he was smiling. Thankfully he wasn't too far away and arrived shortly after. They got me all hooked up and started the medication that would induce my labor. We called our family but told them not to come yet. We knew it could be awhile and possibly not until the early morning hours. I remember sitting there with Houston, holding his hand in silence. We were just trying to take all of this in. It was so exciting. We were beside ourselves.

2:00pm

We decided that since it would be awhile, Houston should go home and get our things. I didn't want him to leave but I was anxious to have our stuff. While he was gone, things began to progress quite a bit. The contractions were about a minute long and a minute apart and were getting quite painful. I was in the room all by myself and decided I would call the nurse. I was ready for the epidural. I hated doing it while Houston wasn't there but things were getting pretty intense and I didn't want to wait too long, you know. They had warned me that they would get pretty strong pretty quick and that I shouldn't feel like I needed sit there in pain to prove anything to anyone. So I didn't. Good thing though, things moved very very fast after that.

5:00pm

Time to push! Houston got back in plenty of time. I filled him in on the epidural experience. He said he was glad to miss it. I said thanks. (It wasn't bad at all, but I guess I didn't look at the needle either) Before we knew it we were pushing, I mean I was pushing! Funny thing, there was no sign of my doctor. Hello, I'm pushing. This baby is coming and where are you? I guess she just comes in for the very end. Everything went fine. Everything was wonderful. Houston saw way more than he wanted to and at 5:47 Lily Grace let out her first cry. Whew. She was here and she was perfect! It was all so surreal. It was the greatest experience of my life and I don't think anything could ever compare. Except doing it again!

7:00pm

After spending some time together we finally went to get the family. They were all very excited to meet Lily. They got to watch her get her bath and I listened to their oohs and ahhs from the bed. I was feeling pretty tired and a little out of it at times and getting sick some too. But it didn't even matter. All that mattered was that she was here and she was perfectly healthy and oh so beautiful!!!

Here are some pictures from our special day. WARNING: There are a few a bit graphic in nature.

All my bags are backed and I'm ready to go....

Just the two of us one last time.

Meeting my sweet baby girl.

First family photo.

" Hi there, I'm your Mommy."

What a perfect day for a perfect baby. Love you sweet Lily Grace Sneed. Welcome to the world!

The Bump

At the time I didn't realize how much I would cherish looking back at pictures of my stomach. Who wants to see my stomach? Huh, not me. But I get it now. It's the most precious thing in the world to have that little miracle growing inside you. Thankfully, I did get a few pictures of "the bump" but next time I will certainly get much more and possibly even go all out and do some professionally.

Here are a few of my very cherished "bump" pictures:

6 mths

6 1/2 mths

7 mths

8 mths

I can't believe that's my baby Lily in there. Oh what a miracle! I love you sweet baby girl!

Let's start from the beginning

I am feeling so far behind with Lily's baby book, pictures, writing down special milestones, blogging, etc. I have this endless list of projects and goals I want to accomplish and I think maybe that's the problem. There are so many things I want to do that I end up not doing any of them because I am so overwhelmed and don't know where to begin. It's time to get it together!

Every little moment and milestone with Lily has been and is so very special. We are loving it. I am going to try to play catch up and post some special things about Miss Lily starting from the beginning. I am excited to reminisce and share with you all things lily!

This first picture might be TMI for some, sorry, but I feel like it kind of captures just how excited I was to find out I was pregnant. Giddy is written all over this way too, up close and personal shot of my face. I took this picture wanting to remember how amazing and miraculous it felt reading the positive pregnancy results on the 7 million tests I took. I especially loved the ones that actually read, pregnant. Yes, I took every kind they make but this kind in particular was my favorite. I just kept taking them over and over again doing a goofy and giddy little jig each time I read the word pregnant on the screen.

Soon after the news began to set in and we told our family, I became a nervous reck. It seemed like all I could think about was something bad happening to our miracle. One afternoon, I ended up driving myself to the ER. It was the day before Thanksgiving, my Dr.'s office had already closed and I felt desperate to know that everything was okay. I was only about 5, 6 , 7 weeks along. I can't remember for sure. They checked me out, hooked me up to oxygen, the whole nine yards. Houston showed up and a nurse wheeled me to have an ultrasound. Oh and by the way, this little trip wasn't cheap. So the Dr. does her best to find our little one and can't see anything. So rather than making me feel better, this very expensive event ended up making things worse. I was reassured that it was just too early yadda, yadda. I did get to go back the next day to get the results to the blood work and was excited to see that my levels were good and greatly climbing. All that to say, we ended up having 5 ultrasounds to nourish my ever growing anxiety.

Here is a picture of the second ultrasound but the first one that we were able to see her. I was right about 8 weeks or so. We went to Ultrasound Unlimited to have this done to satisfy my need to know things were still going well. This was our first glimpse and it was amazing. We could even see her head and little, soon to be legs! What a miracle! If only I could have taken that cool machine home with me.

The third ultrasound we had done was at 17 weeks. We went back to Ultrasound Unlimited to find out the sex of the baby because we just couldn't wait. When she said it was a girl our eyes filled with tears and we were very excited. It was so wonderful to know and our love for her grew leaps and bounds that day. I went straight to Old Navy afterwards and bought a couple of little newborn dresses. I was so excited! A couple of weeks later we had our fourth ultrasound, Dr. ordered. It was the one the Dr. generally orders at around 20 weeks to check for certain things. Of course we were so excited to get to see her again and so soon! We invited our moms to share the excitement this time. Here is a sweet little profile pic from that day.

The fifth and final ultrasound was pretty exciting. One day on my lunch hour I quickly went to a maternity clothing boutique, Pickles & Ice Cream. Sweet little place. Too bad I couldn't afford to even touch anything. On my way out the very friendly woman behind the counter asked if I wanted to fill out a little card for a drawing. I was in a hurry to get back to work but I filled one out quickly and I didn't even notice what the prize was. A few weeks later I get a phone call from Stork Vision, another ultrasound place. They told me my name was drawn and that I won a free 4D ultrasound! Holy cow! I've never won anything from a drawing and this was probably the best thing I could ever win. I couldn't believe it. I felt so lucky and so blessed. The experience was kind of strange at the time but very cool too. It was another chance to know she was doing okay in there and we loved getting to see her in 3D (or 4D, whatever that means). We were so thankful and felt like the Lord was near, giving us this special surprise gift. Here is one of the pictures of our sweet baby girl from that day.

So we went a little ultrasound crazy. Part of the beauty of carrying a child is that you usually get what you want for those sweet 9 months!

Baby Lily

Sweet little Lily Grace. We love you!

More pics to come...