A Little More Lila

I'm posting pictures first for those who only want to see and not read. That's understandable.

Lila is doing great for her first week. If she looks like she likes to fake and bake in her spare time, your eyes are not playing tricks. She is quite orange thanks to jaundice. We had to go to the pediatrician 3 times and watch her heel get pricked and squeezed each time to check her level. Luckily her levels are going down as is the orange hue.

Lila now eats like a champ after taking a week to figure out how it all works. I realized it is harder to watch your child scream than I thought it would be. I don't like it. Life is hard outside the uterus! She gained 4 oz. in 2 days so we know she is getting plenty of milk! She is now back up to her birthweight (which was less than the 10th percentile.)

Lila loves to grab, squeeze, scratch, bang, and lay her hands all over her poor little face. When I try to move her hands away she doesn't like it and lets me know it! I have also learned that when my mom said she would go through a ton of diapers in the beginning, she wasn't kidding. I think Lila likes to wait until I change her diaper and re-snap all the complicated outfits to fill her diaper again.

On the sweeter side, Lila loves to cuddle, especially her dad. She loves to lay on his chest and he loves it probably more. I love this little girl so much it's crazy. I can't give her enough kisses.

I decided no one probably cares about my labor experience, but here is a quick sum up for my own historical purposes.

I felt labor pains (back labor) about 8:30 pm on the 25th and timed them only to find they were 5 mins apart for a while but not increasing in intensity much. Eventually we called the dr. and went to the hospital around 2:30 am on the 26th. I was watched in labor triage for 3 hours but did not dilate past a 4 so they sent me home. I already had a dr.'s appt. scheduled for 10:30 that morning so I basically got no sleep. At the appt. the dr. chewed me out a bit for not telling triage I was being monitored because her weight was estimated to be low. She thinks they would have admitted me. Needless to say, after a sonogram confirming her size was still small and dropping in percentile they thought it was time to get her out. (By the way, this means I have pictures of her in and out of the womb on the same day!) I was sent straight to the hospital, had my water broken, an epidural and a pitocin drip started.

Lila's heart rate would drop a bit every now and then so they had me lay on my left side. After a while I started feeling contractions only on my right side and they were painful! Turns out the epidural medicine follows gravity so a bit after being on my back I numbed back up. All you natural folks out there are crazy! Epidurals are the most wonderful thing ever!

Anyway, I went from a 6 to a 10 really fast and only pushed 4 rounds of 3 and she was out! She was posterior which is why I had back labor and ended up having to get an episiotomy because she wasn't turning without it. Oh well, more healing for me. She came out healthy and Chris cut the cord and all. It was a very cool experience and I'm glad I had it. That being said, I'm glad it's over.

My recovery was painful but having Lila in my arms made it okay. Chris's parents got to see and hold Lila right after she was born and my mom flew in the next evening. I have had so much help from family and feel very spoiled.

I am now feeling great and have had so much fun staring at my daughter. I still can't pick out any features from Chris or I, but my mom thinks she looks like Chris. She definitely has the Harris genes of long skinny limbs, fingers and feet. Lucky girl! I was excited to see that she doesn't have carrot red hair but a golden blondish color instead. Another stroke of luck. I can't wait to see how she grows and changes but for now I am loving my peanut of a baby. So much for a short sum up...