Lilia Shay

We arrived at the hospital at 7:15 am.

 

I was measured at at one.

 

Still.

 

I wasn't too happy about this since I had been contracting pretty regularly all week.

 

The Pitocin drip was started around 8.

 

Along with Penicillin since I was Strep B positive.

 

Which burns really bad, if you wanted to know.

 

I felt like the antibiotic was worse than the contractions.

 

I stood and moved my hips around a lot to help with the progression of labor, but at 7 pm I was barely at a four.

 

I got my epidural before the contractions got bad.

 

I could still breathe through them, but I wanted to have a good, mostly painless experience since my last one wasn't all that wonderful.

 

I had my epidural about an hour when my doctor came and broke my water.

 

I went from a five to a ten in 40 minutes.

 

After pushing three times, she was out!

 

That is, after her cord was unwrapped twice from around her neck...

 

Lilia Shay Jensen

 

 

Born October 3, 2012 at 9:39 pm

 

Another redhead!

 

Well, at least she has red IN her hair...in fact, every day it looks darker...almost an auburn.

 

She shares her birthday with her cousin, Jordanne who turned 1 that day.

She weighed in at an even 6 pounds.

 

 

19 inches long.

 

I couldn't wait to hold her and couldn't keep my eyes off her as she was whisked away for her weighing.

 

Sadly, I didn't get to hold her long at first.

 

She had a lot of fluid in her lungs, her blood glucose was low, her temperature was low, and she was breathing way too fast.

 

So, I couldn't feed her for risk of her aspirating the food, but she needed the food because she needed her glucose level to rise.

 

It was quite complicated.

 

Therefore, she was taken with with her Daddy to the NICU while I cried.

 

I cried because, yet again, I wasn't able to hold one of my babies for very long.

 

I decided to focus on other things, like eating, while I waited to be transferred to the postpartum rooms.

 

 At this time, my parents, Rob, Wendy and Porter arrived to meet our sweet little one.

 

Sadly, four of them left after I was awkwardly transferred.

In the mean time, Lilia was getting poked and prodded.

 

Poor girl's veins were too tiny in her hands to have an IV.

 

So, they put one in her head.

 

Poor girl.

 

They gave her dextrose (glucose) to raise her sugars.

 

They pumped out even more fluid from her lungs, and her breathing went to a normal pace.

 

Then, Seth fed her some formula.

 

He came up shortly thereafter to check on me, arriving at about the time Mom, Dad, Rob, and Wendy left.

 

When some feeling came back in my legs, I wanted to see my girl.

 

So, I was wheeled down to the NICU while Seth and Porter waited in my room.

 

I didn't have the camera, but I got to hold my sweet Lilia's hand and sing to her a bit.

 

I started falling asleep, so I had the NICU nurse call my nurse down to get me.

 

I got to witness her bath before I was wheeled back up to my room.

 

She came up about a half our later at 2 am.

 

Porter stayed up and refused to leave until he got to meet his sister.

 

He was a bit loopy, but he was so excited!!

 

When Seth told him it was time to go home, Porter was confused as to why Lilia and I weren't coming back home also, and cried.

 

I thought it was sweet.

 

I didn't sleep much that night.

 

I held my angel for as long as I could.

 

That is, in between times when they would take her from me to prick her poor little heels and check her glucose levels.

 

They had to do so before every feeding, and she would have to "pass" three times in order for them to stop.

 

She passed two.

 

So, she had to be pricked three more times, and I needed to start supplementing along with breastfeeding.

 

She passed the next four.

 

Four, because they checked her levels after a feeding once.

She was NOT happy when the last one was done.

 

In fact, she threw a royal fit for a good hour.

 

After getting some sleep, Daddy and big brother returned.

 

 

Then, Grumpa and Gammie came with Mikki and her friend Michaela.

Grumpa loves his grand babies!

So does Gammie!

Mikki, uncomfortably, holding her tiny niece.

I was quite tired, but so happy to have my sweet girl here with me.

 

I love how she looks at me, and I love how Porter absolutely adores her.

 

He can't stay away, most of the time.

 

Later that night, Laura stopped by to meet our sweet girl!

 

 

She even took a few pictures for us!

 

Here are two of my favorites:

 

That little bow on her hat was taped on by the NICU, and I think it's the cutest idea ever for little girls.

We sure love our little bundle.

 

 

After three days in the hospital, we were going home.

 

 

Our itty bitty sweetheart.

 

Welcome to the world, Lilia.