Introducing Eilly!

Our sweet baby finally decided to make her appearance a week and a half ago. She was exactly one week overdue, and I was beginning to feel like I was going to be pregnant forever! Then, I woke up at 6am on Saturday morning feeling very uncomfortable. I had this yucky ache in my lower back. I had Garrett rub my back for a minute, then I'd feel better, and then a couple minutes later it would start all over again. Think I was in labor? Garrett didn't. He went back to sleep. I hung out on the couch, watching TV, not at all freaked that my contractions were only three minutes apart.

At seven, my mom came down and she was a little more concerned than I was. She woke Garrett up, let him know I was in labor, and said I should get ready to go to the hospital. I decided to take a nice long shower, do my hair and basically drag my feet as much as possible because I wasn't very excited about going to the hospital.

We finally got to the hospital around 10:30am. I was feeling pretty relaxed even though my contractions felt much stronger because I was listening to my hypnobabies cds. The nurse said I was only a 3 or a 4, but they wouldn't send me home because I was a week overdue.

After that, everything went pretty quickly. I spent some time on the birthing ball, and some time in the tub. Then my fabulous, amazing midwife showed up and pulled me out of the tub to see how I was doing. I was a 7, and about 15 minutes later, I was a 10. My mom, sister and Garrett were all great supports, literally (they were each hanging on to a limb) and figuratively.



The kidlet was finally born at about 3:15pm. Garrett got to catch the baby, and we had all decided beforehand that Garrett was the only one who was allowed to announce the sex. After he handed the baby up to me, he was so choked up, he barely managed to whisper "It's a girl!" It was very sweet. After looking at her cute little face, we decided to name her Eilly Lorraine. Eilly (pronounced "eye-lee") is a cute Irish name that Garrett picked out. And we named her Lorraine after my mom.



We've had a pretty exhausting, pretty great week and a half at home with little Eilly. Sadly, we've had to miss out on Thanksgiving dinner this year, as I am home sick with a terrific case of mastitis. I hope I recover quickly because Garrett will be going back to work on Monday. He's been such a great dad! Honestly, I have not yet changed a single diaper, and now that I've been ordered to stay in bed, he's been great at taking care of everything. Even though we had to miss Thanksgiving dinner, I'm really grateful that I at least got to spend it with the two people I am most thankful for.