We are so happy to welcome little (well...big) Radley Brooks Lillenberg into our family! It's so crazy to now be a family of 5! I still feel like Chris and I are newlyweds....but I guess we're like an established unit now haha.
Radley's pregnancy was especially tough the last few weeks. I was just huge and miserable. And for the week before delivering, every single night I would start contracting and they would get progressively stronger and closer together. I would try not to get my hopes up at first, but then eventually tell Chris that things were getting real and we should start prepping for go-time. Several nights I even loaded up the car with all of our stuff because I was that convinced.
You'd think having done this twice before that I would know for sure if I was in labor. Which, it did feel just like the beginnings of my previous labors, but after a couple of hours, my contractions would just disappear. It was soooo discouraging. Chris began to ignore me when I said I was contracting because it never led to anything legit.
Then Monday the 1st rolls around.
Same routine happened- started contracting, so I cleaned and danced all around trying to get things moving along, but then they went away again. I gave up and got into bed. This is when I normally feel little dude moving around like crazy, but I noticed that I wasn't feeling him. And the more I thought of it, I couldn't recall when the last time I felt him was. And this made me panic. I started switching positions, jiggling my belly all around, drinking juice to give him a sugar high, but nothing. I'm sure it hadn't been that long, but it felt like an eternity that I was trying to get some reaction out of him. When I didn't, I told Chris that I was probably being paranoid, but wanted to go to the hospital to get things checked out. Since I figured it would just be a quick visit to check the heart beat, I didn't even load up our bags or anything. Once we finally got to the hospital parking lot, I felt a little kick and was soooo relieved. I felt a little silly, but decided since we were already there, to get things checked anyway. Better safe than sorry, right?
So we got all checked in and the heartrate looked fine, thank goodness. (of course, then Radley started kicking around like crazy, what a stinker)
The nurse asked if I wanted a cervical exam and I did. She checked me and I was dilated to a 5. Woohoo! And on the monitor I was contracting every few minutes. She asked about them and I just said they weren't strong and they always just go away. She said they would recheck me in an hour and then send me home. In that hour they started to get a little more intense. She rechecked and I was a 5-6. She said I could choose to go home, but because all of my other labors went very quickly once I got going, I decided to walk around for another hour and thank goodness I did, because they quickly got much more intense. I changed to a six, convinced them I needed to stay, and sent Chris home to quickly get all of our things. I was going to wait for him to get back to get my epidural but I couldn't wait anymore and got it while he was gone. I even had to call him to see where in the heck he was because I was afraid I'd deliver while he wasn't there.
Once I got all cozy with the epidural, we both slept for a few hours. Around 8:00, my doc came in to break my water and said I was dilated to a 7.
Then around 9 am, my nurse woke me up to switch my position in bed and when she lifted the sheets, she said "oh! I see baby's head!"
Luckily I felt nothing, so I wasn't too worried about having to hold him in, but they rushed around in a frenzy trying to call the doctor in and get the room set up. Chris was my designated photographer (because he didn't want anyone else in the room), and he said "k make it look like you're pushing for at least one photo." And that's all it took! I pushed once and out he came! They were all shocked at how big he seemed, but he still just looked tiny to me.
It was so perfect. It's my favorite thing in the world to meet my baby for the very first time. Nothing compares to it. We immediately snuggled and took him all in- especially his very distinct chin :) The nurse came back about half an hour later to weigh him, and when she said "9 pounds, 14 ounces" my jaw nearly hit the floor. How in the world did I have such a HUGE baby?? I guess its not too crazy, I was 8,15 and Chris was 9,13 when we were born, so I'm destined for big babes, but this was just crazy to me. No wonder I felt like my skin was going to split open those last few weeks!
Life has been great these past three weeks with our sweet little Radley. He's pretty perfect. And a newborn is literally a cakewalk compared to a terrible 2 toddler. Beck is adjusting, to say the least. And Scarlett is loving every bit of him and wants to hold him all the time. We're tired, but so so happy. Love you, Rad!
Getting ready!
My one "push"
There he is!
Radley Brooks Lillenberg
January 2, 2018
9:18 am
9 pounds 14 ounces
