Our New Years Present

Stella is here!!!! She decided she just couldn't wait until my scheduled c-section date which was supposed to be on January 5th. Stella Catherine Lilly arrived on December 31st, 2009 at 6:02 a.m. weighing 6 lbs 15 oz, 20 inches long. Brian of course was super happy to be getting a tax deduction for 2009 since she decided to come early. For those of you who know Brian, that is no surprise.

It sounds stupid, but I had no idea what labor felt like because with Emme, I had a planned c-section so I wasn't even sure I was in labor. I always thought it was like the movies where it is supposed to be very painful and you know you are having contractions. Well for me, it wasn't like that. I started feeling lower back pain on Wednesday (the 30th) night and also a cramping feeling. I wasn't sure if these were contractions or not because like I said, I never felt them before. I thought they were supposed to be very painful and it was mostly just uncomfortable for me. So I decided to ride it out and see if it would just go away. Brian came home from work at usual time at 11:30 pm or so and I still didn't feel right. I decided to go into the hospital at 2:30 am since I couldn't sleep and it wasn't going away. Brian's advice was just to go to sleep and it would go away...um, thanks Brian but I don't think labor just goes away if that was what was happening so I thought it would be best not to take any chances. I told Brian to stay at home with Emme since there was no need to wake her up since I thought for sure they would just send me home and say it was nothing. So off I went to the hospital and I told Brian I would call him with any news in case they were going to keep me there. Well, needless to say, my contractions were about 3 minutes apart after they monitored me for a bit and they decided after calling my doctor who luckily was on call that morning, to just go ahead and do the c-section since I was already 38 weeks along. I called Brian and we had our friend Tiffany come over at about 3:45 am to watch Emme and he came to the hospital. They did the c-section at 5:30 and she was born at 6:02 am. I got released on Saturday which actually worked out perfectly since my parents flew in that day. Emme got to visit me in the hospital each day for a little bit, it's hard to keep a toddler occupied in a small room for long but at least she got to see me. I felt so bad since I'm with her 24 hours a day and I know she missed me. Brian said she found an old license of mine and she kept pointing at the picture of me crying. If that doesn't tear at your heart strings, I don't know what does.

Surprisingly Emme is soooo good with her little sister. She's so gentle and she always wants to kiss Stella and touch her softly on the head. I was really worried that she would be very grabby with her since she can be the dogs at times but she isn't at all. She even holds her bottle to help feed her. Actually, she's been more gentle with the dogs now too because we keep telling her to be nice to them like she does with Stella, so I think she understands more now. Stella is just the best baby in the whole world, thank god! Emme is such a handful these days that I'm so grateful to have had a mellow child the second time around. She only cries when she is hungry or cold when you change her outfit. She is so content when she is awake or sleeping, she's a true blessing! Emme is wearing me out more than the newborn! I thought for sure she would end up looking more like me but she looks like a little clone of Brian again. Except she got my temperment I say. She has very light hair, not like Emme when she was born. It's definately very blonde with alittle brown in it. She also has the prettiest blue eyes, so I'm hoping they will stay that way or turn to green. Emme's were alot darker when born and she ended up with brown eyes so it would be nice to have one with brown and one with blue or green. We feel so lucky to be blessed with two beautiful little girls!