Ben's Birth Story (Lillian Edition)

You would think that for the second child Krissy and I would have been more prepared. They give you 9 months to prepare for a new child. 9 months to get a nursery ready. 9 months to take things out of boxes. 9 months to pack a simple overnight bag for the hospital. Well... this birth story starts with me waking up at 1:00 am on March 26th, because Krissy had been complaining of "cramping" over most of the evening.

Let me step back for a second. For dinner, the night before Lily was born, the family went to Chuck E Cheese to celebrate Will's 4th birthday... just in case Lily was born before his actual birthday. Talk about picking the right night! Anyway, Krissy had been uncomfortable for a few days, and pizza from Chuck E Cheese is not known to sit easy in your stomach. Just like for Will's birth, Krissy and I were in denial that she might be having real contractions, and instead chalked it up to her having indigestion.

Back to 1:00 am. I awoke with Krissy complaining that her "cramps" may actually be contractions. Dazed and confused, I told her that we should just time them to be sure. Sure enough, these mysterious cramps were quite regularly 8 to 9 minutes apart. Yikes! Try as we could, knowing it was really early in the morning, and that they weren't too too close, we tried to go to sleep. I may have finally found a little shut eye around 2:30 am, because I again awoke to a frantic Krissy moving around our room and closet at 3:00 am... packing!!! Nothing gets your adrenaline going like seeing your pregnant wife (now in what she thinks is labor) packing to go to the hospital. We again timed her contractions. 2 to 3 minutes apart! We thought that we better get this show on the road!

Rushing out of the house, we headed to Nonna and Poppa's house to set up base camp. Seeing that we had to drop off Will and Lulu, and that their house is close to the hospital, we thought that it would be best to hang out there to further assess the situation. In a sweet moment, Will woke up as we were loading him into the car, and started crying when we told him what was going on. We think that the realization that he was no longer going to be an only child final hit him. Weirdly, as soon as we got to the house, Krissy no longer felt any contractions and assumed that it was a false alarm. At this point I was really agitated at Chuck E Cheese for serving bad pizza. Because it was still so early, we just decided to stay over the rest of the night. And that's when it happened! At a little before 6:00 am Krissy started feeling extreme pain that happened to come every 30 seconds to 1 minute. We kissed Will goodbye and rushed to the hospital!

Because Krissy's contractions had gotten so quick and strong, we were immediately admitted to a room with a rush of nurses. Krissy was a champ the whole time, complaining very little about the pain she was experiencing, but still wanting an epidural. When they first measured her, she was at 4cm. This was just a little further along then when we showed up to have Will, so we knew it wouldn't be long until we were going to meet Lily.

Soon after our arrival, they gave Krissy an epidural. This time it actually worked too! Krissy couldn't feel anything below her waist. Then started our wait for her water to break. I was nauseous from a lack of sleep, so the morning really dragged on for me. I know, boo-hoo. Luckily her family and Will arrived after 9:00 am to bring some much needed entertainment to the room.

At around noon Krissy's doctor arrived to break her water. Everything went smooth, but when they checked her, she measured at only 5cm. In my mind this meant one of two things: 1. We had a really long time to go or 2. Krissy would progress super fast and Lily would be here within minutes. Well again, the labor mirrored Will's. At a little before 1:00 pm the nurse checked Krissy again. To her surprise, Krissy was fully dilated!!! This caused a quick panic to get the family back to the hospital, because everyone had left for lunch.

While they were making their way back, Dr. Stutes came in to assess the situation. It was noticeable as soon as she walked through the door that she wasn't feeling well. She was exhausted, hungry, and lightheaded. Hardly a state to deliver a baby in. Even though she knew that Krissy needed to start pushing, she excused herself to get some needed food and water. I think both Krissy and I were a bit nervous about the situation, but neither of us vocalized our concerns to the other. We kissed Will, told him that we loved him, and waited for Dr. Stutes to return.

Only a few minutes later Dr. Stutes was back, and it was time to push. Krissy really is amazing! She's built for easy delivers, and this was exactly that. The only set back this time was the epidural. It's numbing effects made it difficult for Krissy to feel anything, thus limiting her understanding of the progress she was making. After a quick 10 minutes of pushing, Lily was close to delivery, but her heart rate began to drop. It's weird, I has such confidence in Krissy that it never concerned me about what was happening. I just knew that when she was told, Krissy would get her out. Before she could, Dr. Stutes ordered the vacuum for assistance. After three quick pulls, our sweet girl was born!!! I didn't pass out, and I even got the chance to cut the cord this time. It's not as gross as I thought it would be.

My first impression of Lily was that she was loud! She came out screaming her lungs out. She also seemed really tiny. We were sure that she was a five pound baby. In fact she weighed 6 lbs. 13 ounces, which is more than Will weighed at birth. Our impression of her size was probably due to the fact that we hadn't seen a baby in four years. She was also just perfectly proportioned, with big wide open eyes. Another very observant baby. Lily passed all of her tests in the nursery and seemed perfectly content with staring back at us through the window.

I'm still so amazed with Krissy! How she could another perfect delivery with such little complaining is beyond me. It was so easy for her (at least it looked that way), that she even mentioned having a third child right after Lily was born. Who does that?!?! You're a rock star Krissy and I love you so much! Thanking for bringing our little angel into the world.

She's Here!

On Tuesday, March 26th at 1:19 pm, we welcomed our sweet girl, Lillian Joy Pierce. She is perfect in every way! She weighed in at 6 lbs. 13 oz., and was 19" long.

First impressions of Lily are that she is a "thinker" just like her brother, and really looks a lot like Will did at birth... maybe just a tad bit cuter. Their birth measurements were almost identical too.

Lily shares her birth date with someone special, her Grampup! On March 26th, 60 years earlier, Ben's dad Steve was born. How cool is that?!?

We look forward to seeing and experiencing the many ways in which Lily is going to bring joy to our growing family!

Eyes that melt your heart

She was so tiny!

Heading home with our little angel.