Lila's birth story

I went to a doctor’s appointment 3 days after my due date and made plans for the impending induction. My doctor had said all along that she wouldn’t let me go more than a week past my due date and I was 2 weeks past my due date with Sky and 2 ½ weeks past my due date with Brad. So I had pretty much resigned myself to an induction. I was scheduled to have cervidil applied one week after my due date to hopefully get things started and then to be induced 2 days later (with pitocin). It turns out that I didn’t need either!
On Sunday, July 12, I started really feeling yucky-too tired for church, etc. I pretty much rested in bed most of the day. I had been bleeding for a few days before that so I knew things were in process. Ken’s mom wasn’t coming until Tuesday night and we had been hoping that she would be able to watch Sky and Brad while we were in the hospital. But soon the contractions came quicker and stronger and it became apparent that we wouldn’t be waiting until Tuesday. So I called my friend Christine who had offered to watch the kids and she came over with her 2 boys, Timi and Michael.
When we got to the hospital around 6:30pm, I was 4 cm dilated. I went through the routines in triage-blood pressure, urine test, blood draw, etc. and was soon admitted and moved to the labor and delivery room. I immediately asked for my epidural and was in a much better frame of mind once I got it. There were a few complications: my blood pressure dropped quite low after the epidural was put in and I ended up vomiting. But things soon evened out and Ken and I began the wait for our sweet baby girl. I had tested as strep B positive and so I had to have 2 bags of antibiotic administered before giving birth. That took until 11:30 pm and they also gave me 2 bags of iv fluid (not sure why-I wasn’t dehydrated and I ended up being swollen for days afterward).
By then my contractions had slowed way down so they administered pitocin to speed things up again. It was so nice to watch the contractions peak on the monitor and not feel them at all! Ken worked on his computer and I watched tv for a while. When they came in to check things around 1:30am, they saw Lila’s head and called the nurse midwife.
After 2 pushes, Lila was out and I noticed right away how much smaller she was compared to my other kids (Sky was 8lb. 5 oz. and Brad 9lb. 13oz. at birth). Ken got to cut the cord. When they weighed her she was only 6lb. 13 oz., a full 3 lbs. lighter than Brad!!! Because of that, I had no tearing or repairs. What a blessing! I was immediately struck with how beautiful she is. She has long slender fingers and the sweetest smile. There was an initial concern about a small hole in Lila's heart but that seems to have fixed itself. I've heard it's a pretty common thing among infants.
They gave us a full hour to bond alone with the baby, which was so nice. Then they moved us to the second floor recovery room to “sleep”. The maternity ward is decorated with a beach cabana theme and they have a beach painting with a button in the middle. Dads get to push the button and Brahm’s lullaby plays in each room throughout the hospital, signaling to everyone that a baby has been born.
We left the hospital about 32 hours after the birth, anxious to get home to Sky and Brad and introduce them to their new sister (and relieve Christine). We are very thankful for a great delivery and a healthy baby!

Lila's first bath

Life with three kids is certainly busy, busy, busy!!! I think I might soon become a coffee drinker just to be able to cope with life.

A few days ago Lila's belly button cord fell off so we were able to give her the first bath of her life. She seemed to like it (maybe tolerate it is a better description).

I continue to be amazed by what a sweet baby she is. She rarely cries or fusses and she smiles so much, sometimes even laughing out loud. I don't care if it's gas, I love everytime she does it. The kids have been so good to her too. Such sweetness!

Sweet Baby Lila

More Fun with Mimi

Ken and Mimi also took Sky and Brad to the Skirball Museum's Noah's Ark exhibit. We've been there before but this was Mimi's first time and she was very impressed.

Fun With Mimi

While Mimi (Ken's mom) has been here, she and Ken have been taking Sky and Brad out of the house to give me some extra rest time. It's been heavenly and they've been able to do some fun things together. Here are some pictures of Brad at the children's museum in La Habra. They've also been to a free concert in La Mirada.

Blessings

The "celebration Birth day" dinner at the hospital-it looks better than it was!

Maybe someday she'll grow into this swing!

Our friend Christine (who watched Sky and Brad while we were at the hospital) and her two boys, Timi and Michael.

The very proud big sister, Sky!

I feel like this summer has been a summer of tremendous blessings! Not only were we able to buy a home that is in the exact neighborhood we were hoping for and even closer to Ken's school, but we also had our friend Becky (an interior designer from Cincinnati) come and help us decorate and Ken's brother Brian and sister in law Tammy come and help us install appliances and get everything in general working order. Not to mention all of the friends who helped us move to our new house.

Then there's the blessing of Lila! We're so thankful for my friend Christine who watched Sky and Brad (along with her 2 boys as well!) while we were in the hospital. I felt such a peace about leaving them with her as she is such a gentle, patient person and the kids really enjoyed themselves with her. She even showed up today with a bag of newborn clothes for Lila.

We're thankful for an awesome delivery with minimal pain and recovery issues. I'll try to blog the birth story soon (before I forget it). We're thankful for a healthy baby! We had a doctor's appointment for Lila today and everything seemed to be really great. She has lost some weight-she started at 6lbs. 13 oz. and is now at 6lbs. 5 oz. but the doctor said that is normal. It's a little scary for me as I'm not used to such a small baby!

My friend Amy threw me a baby shower and is also organizing meals for us to be delivered every other day for a month (by friends from church and school). Ken's mom is here now and is helping so much with the day to day housework and also with suprevising and loving on Sky and Brad during this time of transition.

And then there's my wonderful husband who picks up the slack in about a million different ways and supports me even beyond what is necessary. I definitely feel blessed!

This is not to say that there aren't trials right now and that we don't need prayers anymore! I always have a terrible time with breastfeeding initially and I am in the midst of that right now. It is awfully painful for me for the first few weeks. Also, as most babies do, Lila has her days and nights mixed up. She sleeps all day despite our best efforts to keep her awake and she is up all night long and wanting to feed, feed, feed (ouch, ouch, ouch!)! Also, Sky and Brad are handling the transition pretty well but they could use prayer for understanding and patience as well.

Lila is here!

This will be a short post because I'm pretty tired but I just wanted to let our blog followers know that our sweet girl Lila was born on Monday and we brought her home today. She weighed 6lbs. 13oz., a full 3 pounds less than her brother had weighed at birth which made for a much easier delivery. I'll write her birth story here soon. We're really enjoying her but a bit overwhelmed with life with 3 kids.

Gettin' it done!!!

Ken's brother Brian and sister-in-law Tammy were here visiting us this week. It was so nice to spend time with them! We always enjoy their company.

They helped us soooooooo much on our new house: installed 3 ceiling fans, removed one old air conditioner and installed 2 others, made a cutting board, installed really cool kitchen lights, put up 2 new motion detector lights outside, put in a new mailbox, mounted our new microwave and 2 new sets of cabinets, fixed faulty plugs, put up some new trim, and worked on some duct work for the dryer. I'm sure there was more that I'm forgetting too.

Brian is used to using top of the line power tools so he had fun using Ken's tools. We joked that it was like pioneer days for him as Ken doesn't have much for power tools. Fun times!

Yard Work

Even though we've owned a home (condo) before, we have never had the joy of doing our own yard work until now. For Father's Day Ken bought himself a lawn mower and hedge trimmer and he finally had the opportunity to use them yesterday. Brad got a plastic lawn mower for his birthday and loves pushing it around the yard just like daddy. What we didn't bargain for was his imitation of the hedge trimmer. He watched Ken for a while and then went and found his baseball bat and started beating the bushes. He got very upset when we tried to stop him from beating the bushes to death. It's probably not a good idea for Brad to have his own bat anyway...