Home again home again...

It's Thursday and we're all finally home again. Lillian was released from the hospital at 10 am today and we almost ran out of the hospital in case they decided to keep us in longer. My Mom dropped Nicholas off a few hours later, and for the first time in 6 days we are a family under the same roof.

Lillian has been seizure-free since Sunday so the medication seems to be working. She'll be on it for a month and hopefully it'll be smooth sailing the whole way through. I still get frightened that she'll have another seizure at any moment, but the panic of the weekend is subsiding. Since the seizures could potentially return later in life I don't think it's a fear I'll ever totally be rid of.

Thank you to everyone for your support over the past few days. The phone calls, e-mails, and prayers have been very much appreciated. Knowing how many people were thinking of us has made this trial much easier to get through.

A picture and an update

This one is for Sean. I do believe that this is the only picture we have of Liam holding Lillian. It's either because he's the one who takes all the pictures or because she's constantly attached to my boob.

We seem to be making some progress in the eating/sleeping cycles. Lillian is actually sleeping for up to four hours at a time and eating all in one go before dozing off again. All I need now is for her to start scheduling some of those four-hour sleeping chunks during the night.

Liam had his best diaper-changing experience yesterday. He got to change a dirty diaper and jinxed himself by saying "This is going to be the easiest one yet" since there was hardly anything in it. No sooner had the words left his lips than Lillian let loose all over the change pad. Then, to top it off, she peed as well. That's my girl.

Baby pictures!!

Liam got the pictures onto the computer today! So...here are some Lillian pics for all to enjoy.

The new happy family.

Mom and baby a few minutes after birth.

Momma and baby a few hours after birth.

A sideways sleepyhead shot.

The classic scale photo. She does have two arms in real life, though.

Kinda fuzzy, but oh-so-cute.

And on that note, Miss Screechy-Pants demands her dairy bar.

There really was a baby in there!!

Despite my late-pregnancy doubtings, there really was a baby in that huge old belly of mine. I gave birth on Sunday to a beautiful little girl who we named Lillian Marie. She's beautiful, girlie, and perfect (a fact which the resident pediatrician officially confirmed).

Our little bundle weighed in at 6 lbs 14 oz and measures 21 inches long. She's my tall skinny girl! She's got lots of long dark hair, and her eyes are that pretty undefined grey/blue color that newborns are so famous for.

There will be pictures and more details soon, but that's all my brain can handle for now!

My oh so cool life

I feel like doing some updates, but I'm not feeling particularly long-winded (for once) so I'm going to use bullets. Bullets are fun.

• I'm now one day away from my "official" due date. Still no baby. Nuff said.

• I've been walking a lot again. Yay! I walked Nicholas to school yesterday afternoon, which took me 30 minutes. In the evening we went on a group tromp in the woods and it took us an hour and a half. Not bad for a hugely pregnant lady if I do say so myself. I did have to make a visit to the bushes, though. Damn you and your coffee Krista!

• Nicholas went to his first full afternoon of kindergarten. I'm still digesting my feelings on it, so I'll probably blog on it later. I'm proud to say that I managed not to cry until I got back home. Woo!

• I'm now just shy of 800 pages into Gone With the Wind. I just may finish it before baby shows up. I'm amazed at how little I remember of the story. It's only been 5 years since I read it last! My hormones ate my brains.

And that is all. Pretty exciting life I lead.

The waiting game.

No, we haven't had the baby yet. No, I'm not in labor.

Those seem to be the two things everyone wants to know these days, so I thought I'd get that cleared up right away.

I'm now three days from my due date and aside from infrequent painful contractions (which mostly seem to happen at night so that I wake up again and again) we have no sign of our baby making his/her grand entrance yet. I was really hoping to have the baby this weekend, especially after learning that our doctor will be gone after Wednesday, but no matter how excited/frustrated/worried I get nothing is happening.

We've now got friends phoning us specifically to ask if we've had our baby yet. I told Liam I don't mind people calling once because it's nice to know we're being thought of, but I'm already impatient enough to get this show on the road without everyone I know telling me they're waiting too. Friends who don't hear from us for a few days assume we're at the hospital, my parents think I'm calling to tell them I'm in labor each time I call, and Liam keeps calling home to ask if I'm in labor yet.

Nicholas also starts his first full afternoon of kindergarten tomorrow, so now we've got school to throw in the mix. He actually told me he wants the baby to be born tonight so he can skip tomorrow and go Friday instead. Hhmm...coming up with excuses to skip class a little early are we kiddo?