Lucy is Born!

Our sweet Lucy was born on Saturday, October 16, 2010 at 6:28 am. It was a marvelous day! I think she is the most beautiful baby ever. She weighed 6 pounds 14.6 ounces and has a bunch of hair. She has a wimpy cry, which I appreciate. I am so glad she is here.








I was so excited to have her come home in this jammie. It is the only one that fits her at this point (and as such has been well-used in the last few days) and it is my favorite type of fabric to hold a baby in. It's so fuzzy.

She didn't like the carseat. Everytime we put her in she cries, but as soon as Eric picks it up and starts moving, she stops. And she falls asleep in the car every time. I was thinking that this could be very handy for long trips, but then I thought, "It's probably typical newborn behavior, (for you know how they love sleep) and is not likely to last much longer."

I gave her a bath on Tuesday and loved her fluffy hair.

The cute ballerina outfit is close to fitting her.

More of the fluffy hair and beautiful face we adore.

Here ends the pretty pictures. Read on for details of the night before the birth if you so desire.

First, I will say that I am so glad she came early -- not only for the discomfort of pregnancy to end, but for the anticipation to fail to get too high. I have feared giving birth just a little, and I think it was good that she surprised us 4 days early, because I didn't have much time to get too worked up. I was definitely planning on being right on time--on the 20th--and if it had come to that, I feel like night of the 19th may have been spent hyperventilating over my expectations. Luckily, it didn't come to that.

Now, here is the story.

Eric and I went to see a movie on campus called Despicable Me. (By the way, it was the cutest and bestest movie we have seen in a while). Just before we left, I was feeling a little sick and uncomfy, and thought maybe I should take a nap. (Which I didn't and now wish I had--lack of sleep makes for a long night.) While walking on campus, I started having contractions. During the movie I had a few more. Walking back to the car after the movie, they were getting worse. Once at home, we sat around for a while discussing whether or not this was real labor. We read the laboring sections of our two pregancy books three times trying to decide. Finally, I felt good about going to the hospital when the contractions were 5 minutes apart and quite painful. So, we arrived at the hospital at 11:45 PM. And I thought, "Wow, I am hungry." I continued contracting for a while in the hospital bed and around 1:30 AM I got an epidural. Yay for epidurals. I loved the nurses we had and especially the anesthesiologist. They were happy and energetic and helped the time go faster (although they wouldn't let me eat anything and at this point I was thinking, "Wow, I am REALLY hungry"). I labored in slight pain for the next few hours--because although the epidural helped, I could move my whole body and feel my legs and feet the whole time. Right at the end I think the epidural stopped working. (Either that, or labor without an epidural would kill me.) I think I pushed for one half of an hour--probably less, but it felt pretty long. Between pushes, I looked at Eric a couple of times and croaked urgently, "I am SO HUNGRY!" I think that helped to distract me from some of the other pain. And then she was born. And I ate some breakfast.

Other thoughts:

• We called Steph's and Clark's family to come and see us, about an hour after Lucy was born and they did! It was very fun to have them there adoring our baby with us.
• It is unfortunate that I discovered the heavenly existance of the cafeteria's parfait so late in the stay. I would have had it for every meal. It was by far the best thing they served. As it was, I tasted of it only once.
• The word "jammie" is back in my vocabulary! I love the word jammie and have missed it since becoming a grown up. Now I can use it every day!
• The first night with Lucy, I slept for only a few hours, off and on, and didn't mind it a bit. It was so fun to wake up and feed her and remember that I am a mom! No night since has been quite so enjoyable, so I am glad I have that one to look back on!