4 Weeks Already?!?!

Lilly is now 4 weeks old!  She is getting so big and grown up!  We took her to the doctor's the other day because we thought she had a fever that had lasted for 3 days, but turns out she didn't.  While there though, they weighed her and she is coming in at a whopping 8lbs 12oz!
The past 2 nights it seems like she is trying to get herself on a schedule!  Hooray for Pratt and I because that means we get a few more uninterrupted hours of sleep!  Unfortunately it means though that she stock piles feedings right before she sleeps for the first part of the night.  She is feeding at 8pm, 9pm, and then 10pm.  There are a few feedings in between there also, so usually over the span of 2 hours she is eating 3-6 times!  The great news is she then sleeps from 10pm/10:30pm until 2am/2:30am.  She then feeds again and then wakes up at 5am/5:30am.  What a glorious schedule!  I am so grateful that she is trying to get on this schedule herself and I don't have to push her onto one! 

She is also now holding her head up for about 5 minutes at a time and is pushing herself up!  I am so proud of the awesome steps she is taking and all the steps she is going to take!

I was told that I should write down the story of her birth, so I don't forget it...Here goes!
Around 4:20pm on August 25th, I was at work and felt like I either peed my pants or my water broke...I went to the restroom and figured out that I hadn't peed my pants, so at 4:29pm I called my doctor and they told me to go to Labor and Delivery.  I questioned if I should go because I wasn't having contractions, but they insisted I go!  I picked up some work from my desk and told everyone I would see them on Friday and that I had a feeling it was all false!  I left work and called Pratt at 4:41pm and told him to cancel the massage I had bought for him to have because I needed him to meet me at Parkview!  Luckily he was prepared and had his bag in the car, just in case! 
To get from my work to Parkview, I had to take Coliseum Blvd to Clinton and then Clinton to Diebold.  I was over halfway to Parview, on Clinton - just past the firestation, through the light, when I started to have a contraction!  Boy did it hurt - no one prepared me for the pain!  Unfortunately I was behind a guy who was letting everyone pass him and he was driving 10 miles under the speed limit!  I honked and honked but all he did was wave to me like I was being a jerk...Little did he know I was in labor!  I called Pratt at 4:50pm to talk to him to help take my mind off of being behind the bad driver and to keep my mind off the pains of the contractions.  I got to the hospital at 5:09pm and all of their triage rooms were full, so they had to take me back to a regular delivery room.  The triage rooms are to check to see if the water had broken and to assess the patient.  Good thing they took me straight to a room, because they had me change and then checked how far along I was dialated and I was at 4cm! 
At this point my water had broken on its own and I was progressing without any assistance!  I begged and begged to take a shower to help relax myself, because I find showers extremely comforting.  The 1st nurse tried to start my IV while I was in the shower, but she put the needle in and it started bleeding very bad.  She got the 2nd nurse and she tried to also start it, but the other area did the same thing.  They called the floor nurse then to start the IV and they were successful!  Turns out I have more valves than veins so it was hard for them to get the IV started!  I am grateful they didn't keep sticking me, but instead they did the right thing and got help!
At around 6pm my doctor came in to check me and reaffirmed that I was at 4cm still and that usually patients progress 1cm per hour, so we anticipated that if everything went okay Lilly would make her debut early Friday morning.  The contractions at this point were so painful the nurse asked me if I wanted some medicine to take the edge off, so they gave me nubain to help.  Unfortunately it didn't help with the contraction pain, instead it helped me sleep in between contractions!  Around 6:30pm or so the contractions were so painful I requested to have an epidural.  The doctor who performed it was extremely nice, especially since I kept calling him Mr. Doctor, instead of his real name!  I am petrified of needles so for me to get the epidural was a big deal - thankfully the nubain helped me not feel any of the epidural pain!
Pratt's work called him a couple of times before the epidural and he wasn't able to help them, but it was really funny to see him have his co-workers hold on so he could walk me through contractions!
After having it  my pain was minimal and I was still able to feel the contractions (barely) and my legs!  Around 8pm Pratt ordered dinner because he was so hungry and he was still in his work clothes from his long day!  Around 8:15pm he waited until a contraction was over and then went to use the restroom and change clothes...while he was in the bathroom I started having another contraction so I called the nurse.  Pratt heard me push the call button, so he hurried and got done.  As he came out of the bathroom the nurse came in the room.  I apologized to her and explained I only called so someone could walk me through the contraction I had.  While the nurse was still there I had another contraction, so she decided to check all my vitals to see how I was.  When she checked me, she looked at Pratt and I and asked us if we were ready to have a baby!  It was around 8:30pm at this point!  She said I was at 10cm and she could see Lilly's hair! 
I didn't feel the urge to push, so she had me do a couple of practice pushes so I could see what I needed to do.  I pushed a couple of times and then I needed to stop because my doctor was helping another patient in the ER.  They didn't have a plan B so they called my doctor to ask her what they should do and luckily she was on her way down the hallway to help Lilly enter the world!
Dr. Mills had me push a couple of times and Lilly wouldn't progress and her heart rate would drop down to 90 beats per minute when I was pushing.  To make sure nothing would happen my doctor performed an episiotomy and within 2 or 3 pushes Lilly made her debut at 9:24pm!
5 hours from the time my water broke until Lilly was here!  It all happened so fast, but it was so easy!  I am so grateful to have an easy labor and pregnancy!  I was able to walk that night and I was able to walk with Lilly the next day.

So that is our story of how Lilly decided to join our family!

Holy Moly!

Lilly is growing up so fast!  She is holding her head up - see the video below to be enthralled as I was :) !
She also is making great strides to becoming shield free when feeding!  She has been latching again like she was at the hospital.  When she gets tired she gets frustrated, but that is okay, at least she is still trying!

I am so amazed at how much she has grown!  It is not exact, but Pratt stood with her on our scale at home and she is almost 9lbs!  Holy Moly!  She was 7lb 11oz at her first doctors appointment about 1.5 weeks ago, so this is the first of many growth spurts!  She is also napping now during the day in her crib!  I have been too scared that I won't hear her at night, so she is still in with us, but she has no problem napping in her crib like a big girl!

She loves to be held by both mom and dad, especially Pratt when he comes home or on weekends!  He tends to have the magic touch when she is upset and needs calmed early in the morning which makes me grateful both that I still can sleep and she can be calmed down!

I am so curious about the type of person she is going to become...Will she be tall like Pratt or short like me?  Will she want to go to college?  Will she have Pratt's teeth or my teeth?  Will she have blonde hair or brown hair?  What will she want to do with her life?
There are so many questions that I don't have the answers to and hope that the path that Heavenly Father has laid out for her will be wonderful, exciting, crazy, interesting, hopeful, and beautiful!

So Many Firsts...

I never realized just how many firsts there are in anyone's life and there are so few that we actually remember, so hopefully this blog will help Lilly see her firsts that she doesn't remember!

• Lilly had a real bowel movement!  She has graduated from the "nutty" bowel movements to a real, smelly, noisy bowel movement!  I know it seems weird to know this and I am sure for some it is TMI, but I think it is amazing that in a short time she is already progressing!
• The people I work with got to meet Lilly!  I find it funny how she has everyone wrapped around her little fingers...Part of it is of course because she is a baby and who can really resist a beautiful little girl!
• Lilly is starting to hold her head up on her own.  Granted it is only for a few seconds at a time, but it is still amazing the strength she has in her head.  She also has been pushing against us and moving herself up when she is laying on us!  It is so amazing!
• Lilly went out to her first sit down restaurant.  We went out to eat at the mexican restaurant up by Target to celebrate our anniversary while the restaurants would not be busy on the weekends and she did great.  She started to get fussy, but was more than happy when we held her!
• She has started sleeping 4 hours at one time during the night!  She will normally eat around 10pm and then stay asleep until 2am.  Although she gets back up at 4am, I am grateful for the 4 hours that I got prior!
• She went to her first mutual activity at church!  Everyone thought she was beautiful and it was neat to see those who we care about and are friends with enjoy seeing her!

She has plenty more firsts to come, but these are just a few of them that I want her to know about.  Other than that we are both doing great - she is an amazing baby and has taught me so much.  I have learned and experienced more patience in the past 3 weeks than I probably have in 26 years prior.  I have also been more positive since being pregnant with her than I had been in a long time.  Lilly seems to have brought out and re-introduced me to great qualities that I have always had, but don't always exhibit.  I am forever grateful to her for this.  Even if they disappear again - which I hope they don't - I am glad that I have been able to have less stress and be an overall happier person during this time!

                                               She loves how warm the transformers blanket is!

                                        Look at this crazy sleepy hair!  Just like her mom & dad!

                                                     Beautiful blue eyes!  Just like her dad!

                     This is why I call her froggy!  She normally sticks out her tongue at the same time!

                                               Gotta love Lilly & Pratt's matching crazy hair!

                                                 Two sleepy-heads on a Sunday morning!

Another Day of Firsts

So today I took Lilly to the library for the first time.  We just met up with Ginny and the boys, since today is story time and they usually go.  Lilly and I obviously didn't check out any books, as she has a ton of books here and I still don't like that the library has machines to check out books instead of librarians...
Up to this point she has been to the following places: Lowe's, Target, the Mall, and now the Library.  She enjoys the car rides and it is fun to see people oggle over how small she is.

Today I noticed that she is starting to develop her own facial features and start growing into the young lady she is destined to be.  She usually sleeps all day in between feedings, but as of 8pm, she is still wide awake from 2pm this afternoon - hopefully she will sleep tonight!
She enjoys being a cuddle bug with Pratt & I and we are just soaking up all the attention she will give us, because as soon as she gets older, the cuddle time goes away :(
Little froggy gets her picture taken all the time when we are at home, because I don't have anything better to do and I love sending Pratt at work photos of her beautiful face!

The first of many doctor's visits...

Today we had Lilly's first doctors visit, with nothing but positives to say!  She is now grown to 20" and she weighs 7lbs 11oz, which means she gained all her weight back from her delivery weight plus some!  This is amazing, since last Monday she was weighing in at 6lbs 9oz at the lactation nurses office!  She also has a heathly set of lungs - as exhibited since she was hungry.  The doctor said she is perfect and even offered if we decided we didn't want her to take her home to his family :)
Since her family doctor is someone who I have only met one other time (in the hospital) I am glad to have met him again and know that he has a great sense of humor and really cares about his patients!

Other monuments include that she has lost her cord and she has a nickname: Froggy!

Trying This Out...

So I have decided for Lilly's sake that I need to start keeping a blog of her life and it will be easier for me to post photos of her everyday!  I find that I take so many photos of her because I don't want to forget a moment of this time that we have been given to be with her.  Hopefully I will continue to keep this blog up almost everyday so I can make sure that I can show her later just how she was...So here is a quick recap...

August 25, 2011 - 4:30pm my water broke...By 4:40pm I was on my way to the hopsital to meet Pratt so we could see where we were with her.  By 9:24pm Lilly made her worldwide debut!  It was an easy labor and I am so grateful for that!

August 26 - 27, 2011 - we were at the hospital and she progressed well and slept well!  We were able to go home on the 27th around 10:30pm.  There were tons of visitors to see this little lady and I find that extremely humbling and neat that so many people care about the wonderful person she will become!

August 28, 2011 - what a day...She would not latch on and no one from Parkview was there to help us out.  We had to feed her some formula because her poor little lips were chapped, tongue was dry, and she had such a dry cry.  I don't think our hearts were prepared to handle this minor challenge so soon.  I know both Pratt & I felt so helpless...

August 29, 2011 - we were able to get into the lactation nurse and get things taken care of.  I am so grateful for them and their patience!  We were able to have a solution that works for both of us and it made both Pratt & I feel so much better, since one day prior we were so helpless!

August 30, 2011 - Pratt had to go back to work for half a day and boy how hard was that for me.  It doesn't seem like it would make much of a difference, but when I am so used to being home with him at the same time or we are both at work at the same time, it does make a difference.  Since he is at work and missing the fun faces, noises, etc that she is making, I have started utilizing my camera on my phone so much more!

August 31, 2011 - Not much went on, but more photos of her pretty face!

September 1, 2011 - Not much happened, but I love being home with her and experiencing all the fun faces that she gives me and I love taking photos of her pretty face! 

September 2, 2011 - I woke up feeling feverish and achy all over.  Thank goodness Pratt knows how to read my feelings when I am sick and because of this I called my doctor.  Turns out I have a uterus infection...Go figure, easy delivery, some speed bumps afterwards :)  Thank goodness for modern medicine!  

September 3, 2011 - Lilly took her first trip to the store.  She went to Lowe's and to Target (mom's favorite store).  It was fun to take her out and about instead of having her couped up at home all day long!  I cannot believe how fast she is growing and how much she sleeps.  My mom also finally has a wonderful house which will be a nice environment for her and Kevin.  I am so grateful that she has this house now!

September 4, 2011 - Pratt went to sacrament today and apparently gave an amazing testimony, which I missed because I was home sick :(  Luckily we have good friends and Brandon texted me to tell me what a great person he is.  I already knew it, but it is nice to know that his awesomeness is seen by others!