Narrative finally!

Well, I'm finally getting around to writing the narrative to go with all of the initial pictures. As you've probably now figured out, the baby is here! Lily Carol Smith was born on Nov 7, 2006 at 8:54am weighing 6 lbs, 13 ounces. She was 19 1/2 inches long. She is a whole pound heavier than Camille was. I had a scheduled C-section because Lily was breech. I'm happy to say that Lily has been the most easy-going baby I could imagine. She hardly ever cries, and she eats and sleeps well. When we left the hospital she weighed 6 lbs, 8 ounces. Today at the doctor she weighed 6 lbs, 13 ounces again (regaining her birthweight remarkably quickly) and her jaundice measured below the charts for concern.

The C-section itself was harder on me than I expected. I was very uncomfortable and shaking constantly. It made me miserable and was exhausting during the process. Everyone was trying to be nice and Matt couldn't have been more wonderful, knowing when to be with me and when to back off. I couldn't have been less interested in the baby at first because I was really preoccupied with the discomfort of putting me back together. Matt said Lily came out feet first and started crying before they even got her head out of me. The doctors and nurses quickly got Lily wrapped up and handed off to Matt. He was holding and bouncing the crying baby in one arm, while stooping over to hold my hand and give me words of encouragement. He tried to distract me with the baby, but I wasn't being very cooperative. After the surgery was over and I finally got some medication to get the shaking and pain better under control, I could finally start to meet and enjoy Lily. My recovery is coming along very well.

The first night in the hospital was very noisy, not Lily so much, but beeps and alarms from all the machines in the room. They had these boots they strapped onto my feet that would alternately squeeze my feet like a bloodpressure cuff to keep the circulation moving and prevent blood clots. In addition to the noise with inflation, for some reason these chirped intermittantly due to various error messages. My IV monitor often needed tending to. My blood oxygen monitor would start beeping every time it dipped down to 90 which ended up being every minute or so. I had to take a deep breath to get it to stop beeping. I finally got them to turn it off close to morning. The nice thing about that monitor was that it had a little red light on the end of my finger (I called it my ET finger), and I could use it as a nightlight to see the baby without turning on the room light!

Camille has been wonderful with Lily. She was very excited to finally have her baby sister here. She got to wear her new "I'm the big sister" shirt, and we gave her a new doll complete with Moses basket, diaper bag, and feeding accessories. Camille can tend to her baby doll (named Priscilla after the nice nurse at the hospital) while I feed Lily. Camille is very into pretend these days. She wants to pretend to diaper the baby. She will put pretend diaper cream on her finger and then want me to help her take off the baby's clothes because she can't do it with her index finger stuck up in the air (trying not to wipe the diaper cream on the clothes). I keep telling her to take the clothes and diaper off the baby before getting the diaper cream on her finger. It's funny. She likes the disappearing milk bottle.

You can see the picture of Lily passing her newborn hearing screening.

Lily was born on Tuesday and we came home on Friday. I am glad that I stayed the 3rd day because it gave me the extra time to increase my mobility and taper down my pain medication. I'm doing well at home, taking things slowly and having lots of help with daily chores. Matt gave Camille lots of special time together this weekend, and that gave me time to take some naps. Camille loves Lily and is really a big helper. She brings her stool up to the changing table and hands me diapers and wipes when I change Lily. She loves to fetch whatever I need. Camille is now an expert in breast feeding and even pumping milk. My milk came in full flood, so I already have 7 bottles (4oz) in the freezer from just pumping off enough milk to not be miserable. That will be nice for later on.

I have a bunch more pictures to post, but that will have to wait until tomorrow.--Stephanie