Our sweet baby girl arrived!
LILA CARLY HUGO
February 19, 2020 9:07 am
7 lbs 5 oz 20.5 inches
and absolutely perfect!
February 19 was the best day! I woke up shortly after midnight with painful contractions, but they only came about every 9-12 minutes. I quickly downloaded a tracker on my phone which was called "CONTRACTIONS" and timed them. It was kind of a frustrating night, because while they stayed fairly far apart, they were pretty painful while they lasted and I couldn't get any sleep! Finally around 4 am I drifted off to sleep for a minute or two and was awoken by an intense contraction- one that just kept going and going and didn't stop or really let up for about 15 minutes straight. I woke Ben up at 4:30 telling him I thought it was probably time to go, but that I was going to try a bath first. Ben started getting ready as I drew the bath- but then things got quite intense again and I decided to forgo the bath and that we should just head to the hospital.
We called my mom and she headed down to our house, and that's where things pretty much stopped! Contractions spaced out again leaving me feeling conflicted and confused on what we should do! But I'd already woken Ben and my mom up, so I figured we might as well just head to the hospital and hope they would keep me. I was so excited at the prospect of having my baby, but so nervous to get sent home! At this point it was 5 am and I'd been having solid, painful contractions for five hours!
Funny side note- the app store kept giving me a pop-up wanting me to rate the app, which said "How are you enjoying CONTRACTIONS?" It made me laugh every time because I obviously wasn't enjoying them very much.
I think I had one contraction on my way to the hospital and another one while we sat in admitting giving them all our info. They wheeled me upstairs and had me change and everything. That's when I noticed a LOT of blood and hoped it would be enough for them to keep me. Contractions were still probably 7 minutes apart, but they were very intense when they happened. When the nurse checked me she was a little surprised to see so much blood, asking me if my water had broken or anything (it hadn't). She called my doctor (we'd already called him on our way to the hospital) and he showed up just a few minutes later. After doing a quick check and announcing I was a good 3, 80% effaced and very "stretchy" that I was definitely staying to have the baby! He said with that much blood there was no way they would send me home, and since I'd just been checked by him less than 24 hours earlier the change was significant enough (and her head had dropped even more) he was confident it was BABY DAY!
I was so excited! He broke my water and we ordered an epidural. Contractions stayed intense, but still not too close together. I had to wait an hour for the epidural because the anesthetist was helping someone else. This was my first time getting an epidural before I was just dying of pain, so it was much more relaxed experience and the first time I was even very aware of what was going on. Soon I was feeling pretty comfy and it was just waiting time!
When I looked at my wristband later, we were admitted to the hospital at 5:14 am, the epidural went in just before 7:00 am. Around 8:30 my nurse came to check me and said I was at an 8, baby was way low and she was calling my doctor to come deliver! He came shortly after, we got set up and soon I was pushing.
I'm always surprised at how hard pushing is- even though I've never had to do it for very long. I pushed through 2 contractions and our little girl came out at 9:07 am! She was covered in blood and vernix- and still was the most beautiful baby I've ever seen! Ben got a little teary and I was just so full of excitement and couldn't wait to hold her. In the days leading up to her birth I was feeling very anxious about her health and possible complications, I can't even express how relieved I was to see her come safely!
I got to do skin-to-skin right away- we hadn't picked a name yet so I just called her "sweetheart" and she really was- just so sweet! I felt a little guilty hogging her, but Ben agreed that skin-to-skin is what we both needed at that time and was content to wait for his turn. I nursed her and cuddled her some more and finally handed her off to Ben to hold. We just marveled at what a sweet little thing she was and our disbelief that she was here. It's always so surreal the way your life changes immediately when a new baby comes into your life!
During that hour we talked about the names on our list and decided she was a Lila. The two middle names we were considering were Grace and Carly- and while I think Lila Grace is the most beautiful name, Carly is more meaningful (Ben's middle name is Carl) and it felt right. We decided pretty shortly that she was probably Lila Carly Hugo, but waited for a few hours to announce it to anyone as I just wanted to use it and make sure it stuck and felt right!
I was exhausted from such a long night and tried to get a little rest, but I had so much adrenaline in my system I couldn't sleep much! Also I didn't want to give up any minute I could be holding my little girl! I couldn't wait for the boys to meet her- my parents brought them over after school and it was the sweetest to see these boys meet her for the first time! Chase told me that at school his teacher said, "Chase you seem so happy today!" and he said "It's the happiest day ever! Do you know why?" She guessed that baby sister was being born. The boys didn't want my parents to tell them her name, they wanted to wait until they got to the hospital so we could tell them. They immediately agreed that she was a perfect Lila!
We weren't sure how Davis would react, since he spent the previous 6 months in complete denial that a baby sister was coming. He fed off his brothers excitement and was very sweet and cute with Lila. Heidi happened to facetime while they were there and Davis went nuts exclaiming "Heidi! It's Lila! Lila! It's Heidi!" over and over- as if introducing them to each other. Such a cute, funny memory from that day.
Ray and Diane came to visit after the boys left, followed shortly by Will and Katie. I loved sharing our girl with our families who already love her so much! But once everyone left I was anxious to get her back and snuggle her again!
Our first night in the hospital I hardly slept, thanks to all the adrenaline and I was so tired but kept jerking awake after sleeping for a few minutes- so frustrating! The nurses were so kind and helpful though! They graciously took her to the nursery at night, brought her to me to nurse, and just got us anything we needed- and otherwise left us alone to do our own thing! It made our two day stay really dreamy!
Thursday we got to just hang out with Lila all day! Marilee came to visit, and then Ben went and got the boys and brought them back to see her again. Ben and I got to have a "candlelight dinner" that night and mostly we just doted on little Lila all day long! I could have gone home early, but opted to stay and enjoy the quiet and bonding time with my little girl!
This is how Lila felt about being woken up for a 5 am feeding. Like all my babies, she was really sleepy and we had to work fairly hard to get her nursing- although she did much better during these first few days than any of her brothers.
Friday morning we were ready to bust out of there! I got her all dressed in this darling outfit- the first thing I purchased after finding out we were really having a baby girl!
Lila is such a dream come true! Holding her I flashed through my memories of trying to get her here- all the pain and tears after miscarrying, finding out the day before our anniversary that I was pregnant and surprising Ben the next day, getting the email a few weeks later that our blood test showed a baby girl was coming, telling everyone about her and all the weeks and weeks of throwing up, restless leg syndrome, back aches and heartburn- and all of it was so very worth it! This little one is just a dream come true and I can hardly believe she's actually here!
We love our little Lila so much! Welcome to the family little one!
