Bookworms

Last weekend, Addison and Aubrey came to visit. Parker and Eden had a great time getting to play with them all day. As they got ready to leave that night, we looked over and they had all decided that it was storytime. They lined themselves up on the fireplace and each chose a book to read. They spent the next 10 minutes "reading" books. What a priceless picture- everyone in the same place and no one was crying!!!

Lily's First Bath

Lily's umbilical cord fell off last week which meant she could finally have her first real bath. Parker was very impressed when her cord fell off and made sure to tell (and show) everyone that came over that day that "Lily has a belly button now!".

My mom gave Parker and Eden their first baths so, in order for Lily to not feel left out, I asked her to come over and give Lily her first bath too.

She was not a huge fan of the water and spent most of her first bath crying. Hopefully she will start enjoying her baths a little bit more as she gets used to being in the water.

Firsts

Lily's first two weeks at home have been full of firsts.

First nap in her bouncerFirst bottle

First sponge bath

First time in the swing

First play time with Parker and Eden First nap with Granstan First Halloween We are looking forward to many more "firsts" with Baby Lily!

Coming Home from the Hospital

I delivered Lily right after midnight on Friday morning and we went home around lunchtime on Saturday. We probably could have stayed one more night, but I was really missing Parker and Eden and couldn't wait to get home to begin life as a family of 5.

Lily got a great report from the pediatrician on Saturday morning and since she was not showing any signs of jaundice, she was discharged by 10:00. I got discharged shortly after and by noon we were on our way home.

I had a pink smocked dress for Lily to wear home and, as you can see, she was not a fan of getting dressed.

We were welcomed home with a sign that my mom had made for Lily.

Shortly after we got home, my parents brought Parker and Eden home. They were both so excited to see Lily again and showered her with lots of hugs and kisses. It's amazing how Lily fits into our family so naturally. I could not have planned for a more smooth transition.

Happy Halloween!

After we got home from the Cowboys game on Sunday, we frantically rushed to get the kids fed and dressed in their costumes so that we could meet up with some friends for trick or treating. Almost every church in town has some sort of festival or Trunk or Treat, but we chose to do traditional door-to-door trick or treating this year.

Parker is very into Disney's "Cars" right now, so he dressed up as Lightning McQueen this year.

Eden dressed up as Raggedy Ann. Her costume had a cute hat but she wanted nothing to do with it, so we chose a red bow instead. She also let me paint some red cheeks on her.

Lily was the cutest pumpkin I think I have ever seen. Doesn't she looked thrilled to be trick or treating?!?!?!?

Family picture

We trick or treated with several friends, including Jewell, who was a great Batgirl. Parker and Jewell both loved going up to every house and getting their treats. Eden was not a fan of trick or treating and wanted to be held the entire time. She did, however, love the treats and was happy as long as she had a piece of candy in her hand.

One of Parker's favorite things right now is to watch "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown". One of the houses we went to had their yard decorated with all of the Peanuts characters from that movie. Parker was quite impressed with that house!
One of the funniest (or maybe the saddest) things of the night was that several of the houses on the block chose not to participate in the festivities. This is how they let the kids know that they were not giving out candy:
Overall, it was a great Halloween! The kids had fun and now I have a stash of candy that I get to eat when they are not looking!!!

Dallas Cowboys Game

Cory's parents surprised him with Dallas Cowboys tickets for his birthday back in August and yesterday we were able to go to the game in the new stadium. Cory's dad was supposed to go with him, but he got sick so I was able to go instead. It was really hard for me to leave Lily at such a young age, but it was nice to get away and have some time with Cory.

We had a great time even though the Cowboys lost the game (again!). The new stadium was incredible and we had really good seats. I am so glad I was able to go and experience the game with Cory.

View from our seats

Lily's Birth Story

It's hard to believe that Lily is already over a week old. She is such a good baby and fits in perfectly with our family. I wanted to make sure that I wrote down the story of Lily's birth before I forgot any of the details.

Lily's birth was short and sweet. It seemed like it was over before it even started. And I can now say that I have given birth completely natural- something I never planned on!

I started having contractions almost a week before I gave birth and even went to the hospital one time only to be sent home in false labor. The Friday before Lily was born, I had a 5 hour stretch of contractions that were 8-10 minutes apart. The next night I had another 5 hour stretch that were also 8-10 minutes apart. I never thought about going to the hospital during these stretches because I could never get the contractions closer than 8-10 minutes apart before they finally just stopped.

On the Tuesday before she was born, I woke up in the middle of the night with even more contractions. This time they got to be about 7-8 minutes apart, were much stronger than the previous ones, and lasted for 12 hours. At lunchtime, I finally decided to call my OB and see if I could come in and get checked out. After driving to the hospital with some pretty strong contractions, they suddenly stopped and I was sent home to wait it out again. I was getting really frustrated at this point, wondering if I was ever going to go into real labor.

On Thursday afternoon, I went in for my weekly OB appointment. My OB could tell how frustrated I was and decided to strip my membranes in hopes that it would start my labor. She did this when I was pregnant with Eden and it worked- Eden was born the next morning. My OB told me that she was on call that night and that if I could get my contractions to be between 5-7 minutes apart, I could come into the hospital and she would break my water. I left my appointment feeling optimistic that Lily would be arriving soon.

Around 6:30 Thursday evening, the contractions started. My mom came over to get Parker and Eden around 7:00 so that I could labor in peace. (It is not very fun to have a 3 1/2 and 2 year old climbing on you while you are having contractions!) I got in bed and started timing the contractions, but could not get them closer than 8-10 minutes apart. Frustrated, I told Cory that I was going to go walk. I put on one of the Project Runways that I needed to watch on DVR and started walking circles around my couches in hopes that it would speed up my contractions. Sure enough, they started getting stronger and closer together- about 5-7 minutes apart. At 10:30 pm we decided to leave for the hospital.

The hour long drive to the hospital was miserable. The contractions were still 4-6 minutes apart, but were VERY strong. I was even having to use some of my Lamaze breathing techniques to get through them. When we got to the hospital, Cory dropped my off at the door and went to park the car. By the time he got into the building, my contractions were 2-3 minutes apart and were so strong I could barely walk.

I made it up to Labor and Delivery and we checked in at 11:35 pm. The tech put me in a room and we waited almost 10 minutes before a nurse came in to check on me. At this point the contractions were coming fast and furious and I was feeling a lot of pressure. When the nurse came in, she started getting all of the monitors ready and began asking me a lot of questions. I told her I was feeling a lot of pressure so she stopped and checked me to see how far I was dilated. Imagine every one's surprise when she told me I was dilated to 9 cm. She went to the door and called for the other nurses. Immediately, there was a swarm of nurses in my room- one was trying to hook me up to all of the monitors, one was drawing blood and putting in my IV, one was getting everything ready for the baby, and one was setting up for the delivery. My OB was 10 minutes away and the nurses just kept telling me "Don't push- Dr. Deem will be here in just a minute."

After what seemed like forever (but was really only 5-10 minutes), my OB arrived and broke my water and told me I could push when I was ready. Two pushes later, at 12:13 am and only 45 minutes after we arrived at the hospital, Lily Claire made her quick yet dramatic entrance into this world. It is still hard for me to believe that I gave birth without the help of an epidural or any local anesthetics. Looking back, it is definitely the way to go and if I ever had the chance to do it again, I would choose a natural delivery. It was difficult while I was in labor, but the after effects were minimal. My recovery has been so much quicker than my other two deliveries and I really feel like it is because I did not have any drugs in my system.

One funny thing that we found out after I delivered was that all of the nurses in Labor and Delivery thought that I was not in true labor at first because of how calmly I walked in that evening. They all assumed that I was going to be sent home with false labor and that is why it took my nurse 10 minutes before she initially came in to check on me. Little did they know that they would all be needed very shortly for a fast delivery!

All of my deliveries have been very unique. Parker's was long and hard, Eden's was a breeze, and Lily's was very quick. I am so thankful that all of my deliveries ended with healthy babies and I now have 3 very different stories to share with each of them when they get older!