Wow, it's been a while since I've posted last. . . . . .

Well, a lot has been happening. Probably too much to talk about all at once, but I'll try. On Christmas Eve my sister was saying that she had been having contractions for the past two days. Chris and I took her to the hospital (because they were SO bad)! We found out that she was almost 3 cm dialated, but because she didn't change during the four hours that we were there, they sent her home.

She wasn't able to sleep all night because they were progressively getting worse and they were coming every five minutes. At 7:30 Christmas morning, she insisted we go back to the hospital. She said, "Either this baby is coming out or they are giving me some strong medicine because they are 10x worse than they were last night. I had no idea that it could hurt this bad." Well, she was then dialated to 4 cm so they called her doctor and had him come in. (Her doctor was out so guess what his replacement doctor's name was - Dr. Seymann - pronounced semen). :) Well, I guess he's in the right field! Anyways, they soon gave her an epideral, I guess it's about 9:30 about. Then they broke her water at about 10:30. I went home about eleven because she was just going to sleep for a little bit so she would have energy later. At about 1:00 Chris called me and said, you better hurry, she's going to be here in 10 minutes! Well, I got there and there wasn't a doctor or even a nurse in the room. But she was dialated to a negative 2. The RN had thought that she was just going to come out without any pushing. Sarah was pretty well off, but she did have to push - for a whole 25 minutes! She lucked out but she was still in pain. I must say, it was a beautiful thing to experience, and the miracle of birth is truly that - a MIRACLE!

After little Lilia came out at 2:12 p.m. Christmas day, she started crying and then all of a sudden she stopped. When she came out she started crying so fast that some of the amniotic fluid went into her mouth, and she swallowed a lot of it! She started turning blue and I think 7 nurses came in all surrounding her and taking the fluid out of her. It was pretty intense and scary, but I don't think we really understood it at the time. I just kept taking pictures. So, they took her up to the Neonatal ICU and watched her there for about and hour, hour and a half. We found out she was 5 pounds 14 1/4 ounces and 18 3/4 inches long. She is so tiny, but perfect and complete.

Ever since then it has been bonding time with everyone! She has already starting to show off and showing some expressions. She loves having her arms straight up and stretching. She is such a good baby so far. She hardly cries, and yet it is still kind of hard to claim as a cry - it's so quiet. She is so tiny that the shirt the hospital gave her fell off of her shoulder and her arm came out of the sleeve. Anyways, she is a huge blessing, and my whole family is so happy that she's healthy, sweet, and SO cute! Well, I better get more rest so I can spend more time with her tomorrow!