Welcome to the World!!!

Saturday, April 18th at 11:40 am Lila Louise Eddins entered the world! After a LONG process in the hospital and what we thought would be a Friday delivery she was finally here and worth the wait!

We were sent to Mercy hospital on Thursday night to get started on cervidil. So far so good, we had dinner and a good rest on Thursday night assuming that Friday would be "labor" day! They checked me on Friday morning and I had only dilated 1.5 cm, but they were encouraged and thought maybe we would be delivering by dinner time or a little later that night. They decided to get me started on pitocin right away to see if they couldn't get me to 3 cm or so sbefore they decided to break my water.

At 1:30 I was feeling some effects of the pitocin, but nothing debilitating, I didn't feel it was time to get the epidural, but the nurses encouraged me to go ahead and get one as Dr. Feller was already here and doing a few others. Wow are they great! Little did I know at that point it was not the last time I would see Dr. Feller. The epidural was wonderful for two hours and then boom, it was literally like someone flipped a switch and the whole thing shut off. At this point my contractions were getting more intense, so until they could get Dr. Feller back up to the room to do another epidural I struggled through a good two hours of solid contractions. When he came back up he decided to completely redo my epidural...so the second epidural of the day.

This time, the epidural worked again, but only from my hip bones down...for those of you who know anything about having a baby...you don't care about your legs so much, it is more about your stomach and abodmen...well either way, I couldn't feel my legs AT ALL, but could feel everything else...OUCH!

After a second epidural and then two more visits by an anesthesiologist we got through Saturday night, but barely...it was a super long night for everyone, but luckily the baby was keeping her heart rate right on track...it was just Mom who was suffering...and still only 2 cm dilated. Dr. Olson came in and said...that if we hadn't progressed by morning that I would need to think about a c-section, I was not overly excited to hear that news.

At about 5:00 AM our nurse came in to check me and low and behold I was 5 cm. You could hear the nurses cheer out at the nurses station because everyone was so happy that I had progressed. At this point I was starving, sleep deprived and worn out from all the contractions and pain, so I didn't feel like 5 cm was all that much to be excited about, I wanted to hear 10!

By 10:00 that morning though we were ready to push, but low and behold my contractions had really slowed down and I was experiencing them abougt 3-5 minutes apart, so the delivery doctor, Dr. Olson (J. K.) told us that we were going to be pushing for a good 2-3 hours...again, I didn't have it in me, at this point I thought do I just take the c-section?! Well, luckily I am a great pusher, because it only took about an hour and half of pushing, which really equated to about 12-15 rounds of pushing when all was said and done due to the contractions being so far apart...and there she was!

Even though I have just endured a marathon of pain and discomfort she was worth every bit of it and her Daddy feels the exact same way. It is pretty amazing what a couple goes through emotionally when they have a child together and then to go through the birthing process is absolutely amazing...you truly experience new levels of respect and love that you never knew possible.

A special thank you to my husband and now father of my child! Without you I could have never gotten through the last 9 months and the last 48 hours and I know I will continue to need you even more now over the years! I can't wait to watch our little girl grow up and watch you become the best Daddy in the world! Thank you to my Mom as well for sharing in our special day and being there for love and support! I am excited to have a daughter because of the relationship that I have with you!

Well world, here she is...Lila Louise Eddins. 6 lbs. 11oz., 19 1/2 inches long...with a full head of dark hair! Sheer perfection!

Welcome to the world Lila Louise!

Love at first sight!

Grammy & Lila

Grandpa & his girls!

First Bath

Full head of hair

The Happy Family!

Sweet Baby!