Welcome, Lucy!

Welp, at long last (at least to me!), she’s here!! We are so happy and thankful for this new little blessing in our lives!!

Here’s a bit about her birth story:

 

On Monday, October 14, (at a little over 38 weeks) my doc in Holdrege said I was about 3 cm and ready to be induced. We scheduled the induction for Thursday morning. I spent the next three days packing, cleaning and mentally preparing for our new little one. Wednesday, we left Jackson with our dear friends, the McQuillans and Dominic went home from school with Jake and Jena (who are also anxiously awaiting a little one—thanks to him/her for staying put a few days!). Patrick and Leo came with us and stayed with my parents. Luke and I had a last hoorah at the Macaroni Grill and talked about how we’d be meeting our newest baby soooo soon!

We stayed at my grandmas and tossed and turned the night away. I woke up every half hour just willing it to be 4:30 already so we could head to the hospital!

We checked in at 5:00 and got started right away on an IV. Lucy’s heart rate wasn’t really responding as well as they wanted her to, so the c-section word started getting tossed around a bit. After a few hours, the dr. and nurses decided to give it a go and they started me on Pitocin.

 

Here’s me…I was much more excited than I let on…

From 7 to 8, I was on the Pitocin, but not much was happening. At 8, the doctor came in and broke my water. He told us, “If you’re not in some serious pain in the next hour or two, we’ll probably have to just take her.” I was a little anxious that this whole VBAC thing would work, but still hopeful that my body would start doing its thing. Within an hour I was getting some pretty good contractions and called for my epidural. I had already progressed to about 5 cm and things were moving great. Lucy’s heart rate started having more variables and looking better, too. We had a great anesthesiologist who we discovered was also Catholic, so we chatted about who the saint of the Day was while he shoved pokey things in my back. I can’t even tell you how many times in the last 3 days I have thanked God for modern medicine. How could I ever have survived 100 years ago? The epidural was a dream—it worked perfectly, so I could still feel what was going on, but no pain, really. At about 9:30 or so, I was at 7 cm and it must have been 10 minutes or less when I suddenly felt lots of pressure. I told the nurse, who checked me and exclaimed, “We’re having a baby!” Four or five nurses sprang into action, turning on the baby warmer, getting the bed ready, pulling down the light and calling Dr. K. Doc is pretty aloof most of the time, but when they called him down he said, “Really? Great!!” All the nurses were surprised that he actually showed a small amount of emotion.

Dr. K was down in about 5 minutes and I pushed through 2 contractions (THIS I could feel, but I could handle 5 minutes of pain) and she was here! She was born at 9:52. It all happened SO fast! She started squealing right away. Doc asked Luke if he wanted to cut the umbilical cord and he, speechlessly, took the scissors and cut. For about 10 minutes after all our babies have been born, Luke doesn’t say a single word, over taken by the enormity of what he just witnessed. They plopped her on my chest and Luke and I just admired how beautiful this tiny girl was and is!

We stayed in the labor and delivery room for about 2 hours. Lucy nursed for about an hour and we spent the rest of the time just admiring her and being thankful.

She weighed in at 5 lbs. 13 oz, 18 1/4 inches, small as predicted.

 

We’ve had lots of visitors. Fr. Buhman was the first one to come, followed by my grandma and later, mom and dad brought up Leo and Patrick. Leo was pretty excited about the new baby. He loved to touch her head and asked, “Can I pet her?” Patrick was a little more apprehensive, but after being in the room for 30 minutes or so, he was ready to look at her and seemed to warm up to the idea of a new Lucy.

 

We also had the Guenthers (twice!), Emily, Beth, Lizzy and Chris, Grandma and Grandpa Deaver and Jim Jansen, who brought a super cute “huskercatholic” onesie for little Lucy—should fit during baseball season. GBR. We’ve already been flooded with pink and purple clothes!

 

Lucy has been a joy. After sleeping quite a bit in the first 18 hours of her life, she cluster fed most of the day yesterday, making for one very tired and sore momma. Today she’s been slowing down, though and Luke and I got 2 good stretches of sleep last night. We love her little expressions and her pretty dark blonde hair. Neither of us can believe that she is a little girl and she’s OURS!

We took advantage of the extra help and stayed 2 nights. At this point (Saturday morning) we are just ready to get home and be a family (not to mention the fact that I haven’t felt fresh air in over 42 hours).

Much more could be said, but Lucy is ready to eat again. Welcome to our family, Lucy Gianna! We are so happy, thankful and blessed to have you in our lives!