Welcome to the family!

**This is going to be long I want to share my birth experience**

I would like to officially welcome Raelynn Grace to our family! She was evicted on April 29th at 12:37pm.  Yes I said “evicted.”  I really wanted to try to have a VBAC with this baby, since my last labor and delivery was not so great.  I ended up having a c-section with Lilly 4 days past my due date and 12 long hours of active labor and 2 even longer hours of pushing.  With Raelynn I was prepared to go past my due date and my doctor was going to let me go 2 weeks as long as she was doing well.  At a week past my due date, Raelynn was still doing well and I was having contractions every night but they were not doing anything.  So I decided to schedule a c-section on the 29th (10 days past my due date).  After being pregnant for almost 42 weeks I was very ok with going the c-section route, because I truly felt like I gave her every chance to come out on her own. 

I was able to talk to the nurse manage before hand and we talked about my previous c-section and what I would like to happen differently this time.  I was very upset that I didn’t get to hold Lilly on my chest when she was born and that she was in the nursery for about 30 minutes before I got to see her in the recovery room.  So we came up with a plan to make this c-section better than my last.  I wanted them to drop the drape so I could see her being born, I also wanted to hold her right away, (not normal procedure at our tiny hospital here in LaPlace), and I wanted her in the recovery room as soon as I was in there.  Everyone was ok with my plan as long as Raelynn and I were stable. 

It was strange to be awake and not totally exhausted for the surgery, I kept saying, “I don’t remember this from last time.” and Mike would add, “you were exhausted I’m surprised you were even awake.”  He was right I was so tired after laboring with Lilly that everything for the first 12 hours or so were a total blur.  After about 10 minutes of joking with Mike in the OR the nurse asked me if I was ready, and she dropped the drape so I could see Raelynn being born.  I didn’t see anything until she was totally out so it wasn’t as gross as it sounds, but I did get to see her open her eyes and take her first big breath then start to scream!  After the doctor commented that she was bigger than Lilly , then they cut her cord  and brought her over to me and placed her on my chest!  She was perfect in every single way, we stared into each others eyes for a while and then I asked Mike to take her because I started to shake pretty bad from the epidural and I was afraid to drop her.   After the surgery I was able to hold her skin to skin on my chest in the recovery room for an hour or so, then I finally let my mom and Mike hold her. 

Raelynn Grace weighed 7lbs 15oz and 20.5 inches long!

And a comparison to Lilly when she was brand new. 

I’ll add another post soon with more pictures of Big Sister Lilly  meeting her baby sister.