3/10/2010

Two weeks ago today, our lives were forever changed when this precious child entered the world.


I want to remember the details of that day forever so I'm devoting a post to it. It will be lengthy, so if you don't want to read all the details I will completely understand. But to us, it's the sweetest story and there is not one moment that we want to forget.

It all began Tuesday February 23. Our small group had been canceled so we had the evening free. Blythe's room was a WRECK as all the sweet gifts we had been blessed with had not found a place. We decided to take the evening to clean our house and I am SO glad that we did. We cleaned our room and set up the pack'n'play so Blythe would have somewhere to sleep. We got her room organized, folded laundry and put it away and worked on cleaning the rest of the house. When we finished we felt such a sense of accomplishment! And for the first time, we actually felt "ready". We knew that being ready for a baby is not possible but we finally reached a point where we knew there was nothing else we could do to prepare.

Well...maybe one more thing. Going into this I knew that Labor and Delivery would be an interesting process. As strange as it sounds, from the beginning of my pregnancy I had said I wanted painted toes and shaved legs when my child entered the world. These were the things that I could control in the process and things that would make me feel good as well. So after our cleaning marathon my sweet husband painted my toenails. Have I mentioned I adore him? Well just in case I haven't, I adore him. Currey is amazing!

We didn't know those would be some of our last moments "just us" and it's a time I will always treasure. We laughed and talked about our baby. We continued to wonder when she would come. We went to bed about 11 and I woke up at 1:30 to a very strange sensation. My water had broken! I woke Currey to verify that my water had broken which he quickly confirmed. What else could have happened! We called the hospital to let them know we were on our way. The drive there was surreal. Although we knew on our drive home we would be returning with a baby, it was hard to fathom on the way there.

The week before Margie Schroeder had called and asked where I would be delivering. When I told her she stated that the woman who had Margie's job previously was now living in Illinois and worked at the hospital where I would be delivering. This nurse happened to be at Margie's school visiting so I was able to talk to her. We talked about how fun it would be if she was working when I delivered but thought it would be highly unlikely. Imagine our surprise when she greeted us at the hospital. God is SO incredibly good and I was really put at ease swapping stories about Amarillo with Tracy. She was so easy to talk to and convinced me at 4 am that my mother would be ok to be woken up so she could get on the first plane out of Amarillo. She was super attentive and handpicked my nurse when her shift ended. Our next nurse was Margaret who was equally amazing. I honestly can't say enough positive things about the labor and delivery nurses! About this time I got my epidural and we began to wait.


I loved my anesthesiologist! Once I wasn't feeling any more pain I was able to get some much needed sleep. Unfortunately Margaret had to leave us to go and be the charge nurse but she was replaced by Lisa. This change took place about the time I started pushing. Although I was initially unsettled by this, we quickly feel in love with our new nurse Lisa. She was exactly who I need during all 3 HOURS of PUSHING! No need to recount those details...but the end result was our precious baby girl.


There are not words to describe all the emotions that we felt when we saw Blythe for the very first time. Seeing that she was healthy and perfect was a great blessing! Getting to watch Currey with her in those first few moments was priceless. Once she was all cleaned up and in my arms my mom finally got to come in. She had arrived at the hospital just when I began pushing so she had been in the waiting room for 3 hours! The joy on her face! We stayed at the hospital until Friday and I could not wait to get home. We are so greatful for a safe labor and delivery. We were really blessed by emails and phone calls from so many sweet family members and friends. We are all adjusting well to being at home. I'll do another post soon about life after the hospital.