Our Birth Story

The contractions started coming on Valentine's Day while I was enjoying a nice foot massage at the nail salon. My first thought was how funny would it be if my water broke all over this lady's head as my toes are being painted. I think it would be contained to the foot bath, although I would hate to be the next person that soaked their feet into this tub... Luckily I left the nail salon water in tack with pretty pink toes and shiny, buffed finger nails. Which we all know is very important when you are going to bring a new life into this world.

Came home and started cleaning because that's also what Moms do when they know a new baby will be here soon. After the house was fully in order and our stuff all packed, I took a nice warm bath and noticed the contractions had stopped. I guess Lorelei wasn't quite ready for this world after all.

The next morning, I was starting to lose some water and the contractions started to come back. So the three of us headed off to run errands, Longs Drugs, Aaron Brothers, Ikea (twice), Anthropologie (twice), and Baskin Robbins. Since the contractions weren't coming close enough or strong enough I waited until late afternoon to call the doctor. At 5:45 in the evening I got a call telling me to come to labor and delivery. Uh, I don't think so. There's a yummy birthday dinner and a Baskin Robbins Mint Chocolate Chip cake that we're about to eat! Priorities right? So after celebrating my brother's birthday, we left Kelsea at my parents house and headed to the hospital.

After getting all checked in and situated in our room "15" the doctor decided to start Pitocin. So at 10:30 pm the drip started and my brother and Jennie went home since we were told I probably would not be having this baby until the next morning or afternoon. So at midnight I opted for an epidural in hopes for a good (okay decent) night of sleep. Well, an hour later I was 6 cm, and 30 minutes after that I was fully dilated. So much for sleep and so much for having Lorelei at a normal hour of the day. So we called Steve and Jennie, at about 1:30 in the morning and they came back to the hospital. We had to wait for the baby to drop a little further down and then we had to wait for the doctor (of course).

This picture was taken at 3:08, right before the doctor showed up and 13 minutes before Lorelei entered this world.
So after about 10 minutes of pushing Lorelei arrived at 3:21 am! Jennie actually got to cut the umbilical cord! Note: Wallis was given the chance to do the cutting, but declined...he's not so tough.
There were a lot of similarities between Kelsea and Lorelei's labor & delivery, but they were 180 degrees different once they were born. Right after she was born they put Lorelei on my chest and I got to hold and nurse her for almost an hour. With Kelsea, they took her away after 10 minutes and I did not get to see until 3 hours later. Lorelei did not appreciate being towel dried off
The new proud parentsShe weighed in at 6 lbs 12 ounces and 18.5 inches long. A half inch shorter than Kelsea but 6 ounces more. She acutally has a full head of black hair like her Daddy's.Yep this little girl is yours.Besides getting to hold and nurse Lorelei right after she was born, they also did all the testing and the bath in the room. She never left our side.
After a tiny bit of sleep that morning we had our first set of visitors. She was just a little bit excited to meet her new baby sister. (In case you can't tell from the photos)

After much pleading with Kelsea, Grandma and Grandpa finally got to hold their newest granddaughter.
And after they got a little sleep, Aunt Jennie and Uncle Steve came back to the hospital to hold Lorelei. Thanks to this lovely lady who took all the fantastic birth pictures of Lorelei. We are so thankful to have these photos!
And to this wonderful brother and uncle who got the whole thing on film!
And the next day, we were ready to bring Lorelei home. At 2:00pm on the 17th we headed home, a new family of four.