The BEST Day of my life (right next to our wedding day), was the day our daughter, Lily, was born.

It was also the longest day of my life!! When people tell you that your ‘idea’ of how your baby’s birth is going to go is never actually what happens…it’s so true.

I should have prepared myself better for that. I had such an easy pregnancy; a little morning sickness for 14 weeks, and had a hard time sleeping, but who doesn’t deal with that? I was very lucky!!

Friday, November 16th was my due date and I had my last appointment at CWC. We left disappointed because it didn’t look like Lily was ready to come out at all. So I went home, hoping that something would change, and it did!

At 4:30 AM the next day, (Saturday) my water “broke;” which wasn’t anything like you’d expect it to be. It was not a huge gush of water, so I wasn’t even really sure that’s what happened. I was also having contractions, but they really weren’t that strong. So, I called the doctor and she told me to meet her at the hospital at 9 am.

What did I do? Re-packed my entire “go bag.” I had a few hours to spare so I went through it and took out everything and re-packed. Then ate breakfast…thank goodness.

Once we got to the hospital and they confirmed that my water did break, I was admitted. My contractions were also pretty close together, but still not very strong.

We got cozy in the (super nice) labor and delivery room at FMH in Frederick and got very excited thinking that we we’re about to meet baby girl. Fast forward about 8 hours and we were still sitting in that room with nothing happening. So we decided to try to speed things up with pitocin because I stopped progressing at 3 cm dilated. Still nothing.

When the doctor first mentioned that I might have to get a c-section, I was upset and nervous. I hadn’t planned for that AT ALL! I thought everything was going to be so easy and quick, but Lily had other plans! She wanted to stay inside for a few more hours all snuggly, I guess!

After giving me a few more hours to see if the pitocin would work, the doctor came back in and said it didn’t look like she was going to come out naturally. By that point I was more than ready for the doctor to come back and take me for the c-section. I was exhausted, having been awake since 4:30 AM on Saturday, and now it was 1:00 AM on Sunday, November 18th.

My husband, Tim, held my hand and told me everything was going to be okay and we went back to the surgical room a few hours later.  Lily was born at 4:12 AM on November 18th.

She screamed the moment that she was born and it was the best sound I’ve ever heard in my life. Of course, you cry….and it was hard not being able to hold her right away, but I was happy she had a great team of doctors around her to make sure everything was fine. It was  🙂 She is perfect.

7 lbs., 5 oz. and 19 1/2 inches long, our sweet Lily Emma came into the world and life hasn’t been the same since, she has made it so much better!

We spent 3 days in the hospital recovering and learning how to take care of our new little person. The nurses and doctors were amazing. You kind of grow attached to each one of the nurses and when their shift is over it’s so sad, but the next one is just as sweet and kind and so helpful. So, thank you to them for taking such great care of us!! We had such a wonderful experience at FMH.

Recovering from a c-section is no joke! I don’t know why more people don’t talk about it. It was hard recovering from major abdominal surgery and trying to take care of a little baby at the same time. It’s so emotional and you need all the help you can get!

The first three weeks home I barely remember. It was so fast and so exhausting. I’m not joking when I say my eyeballs were burning because I was so tired! My husband was doing almost everything for me and around the house to keep up with things while I was recovering. He’s amazing!

…and now it’s been 2 months since her birth day! That flew by!! Things are getting easier and shes sleeping 6-7 hours at night!

Still figuring out motherhood and trying to remember that i’ll never get these days back while shes so little. So, ill be snuggling that little girl every chance I get!

<3 Katie