Adventures with the Nelson Family: Awaiting a Bitty Baby

39 weeks... 7 days to go!

My third trimester was a happy time for us. I felt good for the most part, but residency took it's toll. I thankfully had an easy rotation my last 2 weeks of pregnancy and enjoyed a few naps! Despite the snow, we walked everyday to try to get this baby to come out. I joked to my doctor that Rooney was one of the most well exercised dogs in my 3rd trimester. The days ticked by, but I reached my due date and no baby! Thankfully, there was the NCAA Basketball tournament going on to keep us occupied. On our due date, Palm Sunday, Ben and I attended church and did our usual Sunday errands. There was a blizzard rumored to be making it's way into town that day- but the forecasters in Indianapolis tend to be astronomically off most times. No snow by 5pm, so we figured they were wrong... again! Our friends wanted us to go downtown to a bar to watch the KU game, so I sent Ben (secretly hoping as soon as he leaves the house I would go into labor!). My brother face-timed from Afghanistan and about 30 min later... here came the contractions! And so did the snow!

By the time Ben got home a few hours later after pushing their car up a hill to get home, we had a healthy amount of snow. Ben walked in the door and I told him he may want to scoop the drive, since we'd be needing it to go to the hospital tonight! I labored at home for the next 9 hours and we carefully drove through 11 inches of snow in the morning to the hospital.

We got admitted, called our families and... waited! Ben and I had a good laugh when the nurse was running through their standard, "Have you been exposed to ________ disease in the last 30 days?" questions after I had to say "yes" to 50%. Sick kids are a dirty job.

I seriously thought I was going to deliver this child without medications. Little did I know, it hurts! I made it to about 8 cm, then decided that natural births were for the birds and 30 minutes later, I was in anagelsic heaven with an epidural. Ben was a great coach and kept me laughing. He had a playlist ready of some odd tunes for pushing, which I appreciated. I had requested Pitbull... but he had his own ideas. When it came time to push, Dr. Pease invited Ben to help deliver me. Brave man. He jumped right in and after 45 minutes of pushing, our little baby girl was born! The NICU team was present for the delivery and had to take Lilah back to the NICU for closer monitoring since she wasn't breathing well initially. I hadn't had a chance to meet her yet and felt pretty heartbroken about not being able to see her sweet face after her arrival. Ben stayed with her and I counted the seconds until I could be with them. My parents after driving madly across the Midwest thru the snow got there just in time to meet her when she came back to our room! We were able to look her over, kiss her and finally name her. Ben and I were opposite name lists, but we both readily agreed that she looked like a Lilah. Welcome Lilah Rose Nelson!!

Lilah Rose Nelson

7 pounds, 11 ounces

March 25, 2013 at 7:09pm