Badge of Honor

Week two has been just as wonderful if not better than week one! I have earned the 3 P Badge of Honor this week! Peed on, pooped on AND puked on. All three taken care of so soon....I'm very grateful. We're starting to establish some sort of a routine but nothing set in stone. Feedings are going well, I think, and we seem to be getting plenty of sleep. I was actually able to get a shower in today and start a laundry by 10:30am this morning! Successful day, if you ask me! Weather is warming up today (60s) so maybe I'll introduce Lily to her stroller and go for a walk. This sounds awfully ambitious to me....I'll let you know how it turns out.

Mama and Lily

Kisses and hugs sent via monkey from Texas

Snow babies are SOOO cute!

Snuggle time with daddy

Hat and sweater from Lily's excellent, wonderful, oh...and Great Aunt Jerry. Tons of compliments on the handwork. Thank you!

Meeting Uncle Robby for the first time

First Week at Home

I always swore I wouldn't be one of "those parents" who take a picture for every little thing her newborn does. I'm eating my words and I don't care. She's just too precious not to record each special moment! This first week has gone well. We actually slept VERY well last night.....two four hour spurts! However, I managed to wake up with a fever that still hasn't broken, so I pray I don't get her sick.

First bath

Our little ET
Papa, Lily and Bear

Bear taking in a sniff

Nana and her two latest addictions....Lily & her laptop

p.s.

A quick congratulations to Gabrielle who guessed the correct birthday, and to Aunt Wendy for being the closest to guessing Lily's weight!

Home sweet home

They let us take this perfect, little baby home! We forgot to ask for the instruction manual so we're just kind of winging it right now. It baffles me that a routine will eventually be set but it seems so far out of reach right now. Lily is The Most Perfect Baby (sorry to all the other parents out there, but it's true) and continues to be so despite pulling an all-nighter last night. Sure felt like the old days of working the night shift. However, I'm extremely thankful for my mom who took over at 5:30am and let me sleep until around 8:30am. Plus I got a shower today which makes me feel like a new person each time. Lily has her first doctor's appointment tomorrow morning, so I'll update her stats then, but I'm a tad bit nervous about getting out in the freezing cold weather with her. Think warms thoughts for us!

Here are some pictures of Lily's first friends and going home....ENJOY!

Who just gave birth? Papa John wishing to be more comfortable to watch the football games but he seems to be missing something.....

Now he's complete.

Lily Grace Thompson Arrives!

I think I can say that labor technically started late Wednesday/early Thursday. I managed to drag myself into work on Thursday for a few hours with contractions coming every 20 minutes or so. I honestly thought I might be back the next morning....like these contractions would go away or something. Not so much. We (and by "we" I mean Lily and I) stayed awake all Thursday night counting the timing of the contractions. Once they got to be about every 5 minutes, I contacted the doctor who said to go on in to the hospital. Here are the main events:
1. Given option to go home to progress or stay and walk around
2. After walking around, go home or stay and get pain meds to sleep/relax and reassess
3. Continued to progress slowly but surely
4. Received epidural at 6pm
5. Water broken around 6:30pm
6. Developed a fever
7. Lily wasn't really tolerating the contractions that well
8. Instilled amnioinfusion to help Lily be a little more cushioned
9. Got another 1/2 dose for my epidural because I was a moron and forgot to use my button for the medicine
10. Could no longer feel my legs or anything else for that matter
11. Medical team was concerned that I was so numb that I wouldn't be able to push Lily out effectively since she was starting to show some signs of distress
12. Pushed her out in only 23 minutes!!!
13. Lily Grace was born on 1/10/09 at 12:44am!

She came out floppy, pale and with a fever, but she has perked right up and doesn't even have the "newborn" cry. It's a real baby cry already. It has been the most incredible experience ever and we thank everyone for their good thoughts and well wishes. Will obviously upload more pictures once we get home, but here are a few to start. (I think she's the MOST beautiful thing in the world!)

Our little pale beauty

First bath. This is the little butt that kept sticking out of my belly!

The new, happy family!

No progress...

I went for my weekly doctor's visit today and found out nothing. Lily will come out when she's ready, I suppose, but I'm not a fan of waiting. No dilation, no rupturing of any membranes and not really any dropping to speak of. Due to an "issue" that occurred this morning, I did get to have an ultrasound to check on the fluid status surrounding Lily. All is well and I got to watch her practice breathing, sucking and what looked like gulping! If she hasn't arrived yet, we'll get to see her again next Tuesday to get an estimated weight. Meanwhile, I think I'm going to try the eggplant parmesan trick sometime this week. Cross your fingers that it really works!

New Year's Day was a blast! We had our dear friends Farrah, Cory, Bird, Erin and Brett over to watch football. All day. Two tv's going. All day. Geesh! Ended the day with a low country boil, thanks to Bird, and a nice fire out back.

Bird, Cory, Johnny, Brett

Old friends for the new year!

Me, Erin, Farrah
Profile of baby Lily

She has the Smith nose, bless her little heart.

39 week belly shot