Lily Clare Croft has Arrived

Hey everyone!
The last time I wrote, I told you that on Wednesday, February 4th, Lily was officially "allowed" to make her appearance, since I would be 37 weeks and she would be considered full-term. Well, she apparently took my words to heart, because that is the exact day she chose to arrive :)

Here is what happened: On Tuesday, February 3rd, I had my regular weekly check-up. Mary, our midwife, did her usual check and told me that I had definitely made some change, from 1 1/2 cm dilated and 50% effaced, to 2-3 cm dilated and 80% effaced. She also said that, since I would be 37 weeks the next day, I was allowed to stop taking my anti-contraction medicine and could get off bed rest.

This news, of course, made me pretty excited. I tried to get her to tell me how soon she thought that I would go into labor, but she would make no predictions. She said it could be within the week, but some women stay that dilated for two to three weeks. Nonetheless, I couldn't help smiling at Brian, who was also feeling somewhat excited by the news, as we walked out of the building.

That night, when we got home, I started to get a really persistent backache. I played with the idea that it might be early labor, but figured that I only "wanted" it to be, because I knew that labor was starting to be a real possibility. So instead, I popped a Tylenol and went to bed. All night long, my back continued to hurt, but it was a constant pain, not one that came in regular intervals.

The next morning, Brian went to work in Alliance like normal. I woke up and still didn't feel very well, but managed to force down a bowl of cereal. I decided that, since I was finally off bed rest, I'd walk down to the mail box to check the mail. As I was walking, I noticed A LOT of pressure, but, again, just figured that Lily was dropping down even further. Finally fed up of the back pain, I decided to take a bath to see if it would help.

As soon as I got out, my water broke. It was 11:45 a.m. I had a moment of panic, where I called Brian and told him he had to come home now! Then, I took a breath and started to get all of the bags and car seat ready to go. Brian got home about 25 minutes later and we loaded up the pets and started the 55 mile drive to the hospital.

The pain was not too bad at this point. I was getting mild back contractions every 2-3 minutes. We arrived in Scottsbluff, dropped the pets off at Brian's mom's house, and headed to the Birth and Infant Care Center. It was about 1:00 p.m. I was convinced I didn't need a wheel chair, although as soon as I started walking I realized I was leaving a water trail (which was somewhat embarrassing), so I ended up getting pushed to the delivery room anyway.

When we arrived, I was still 3 centimeters dilated. There were two other women who were in labor, and they were screaming bloody murder. This made me nervous! The nurse actually told me to turn the TV on if I wanted to drown out the noise...Within the hour, I started to have really intense, really painful back contractions. This was the point where I told Brian I didn't want to do this :) They gave me some pain medicine that seemed to help the contractions get shorter, although they were still coming pretty close together (about every two minutes, lasting for 45 seconds). Two hours after we arrived, I was 5-6 cm. About an hour after that, I was already at 10 and ready to push! As soon as I heard this, I was ready for action!

Our midwife arrived at this point, and said, "See? This is why I don't make predictions!" 58 minutes later, I pushed Lily out into the world. Surprisingly, this was a very fun experience. There was only about 30 seconds of pain as Lily's head was crowning. As soon as she was completely out, she began to cry. Daddy got to cut the umbilical cord, and actually splattered cord blood on my face and the wall paper above the bed :)

Here are her stats:

Lily Clare Croft

Born 6:17 P.M

6 lbs, 7.9 oz

19 inches long

I am told that I am very lucky to have only had a 6 hour labor...I agree! Here are some pictures of Lily's first moments...

Right after she came out!

I could not have been happier ....

Our first family photo

Daddy was immediately in love...

Snoozing on Mommy

We were released from the hospital on Friday, the 6th. Unfortunately, Lily developed jaundice, which is not unusual in a baby born 3 weeks early. We had to keep her under bilirubin lights all weekend, which was very difficult for me and Brian, since we couldn't really pick her up and hold her. We also had to get her heal pricked for a blood draw everyday :( However, as of Thursday the 12th, she is jaundice free--although she is still working the yellow out of her system.

I have had very little pain, and am just coping with the change in my sleep schedule. Brian is an amazing daddy. He gets up with me at every feeding and helps change her diaper.

When I find the time, I will continue to keep everyone updated. Stay tuned for more pictures!