The Schuchards: Welcome, Lila!

We've been waiting for you, Lila! Our beautiful daughter Lila Kay Schuchard was born on Tuesday, October 26th at 11:31 a.m. She weighed 6 pounds 7 ounces and measured 19 1/2 inches long. We are so happy to have her in our family!

The day of Lila's birth started very early. We woke up at 4:15 a.m. to get ready and called the Labor & Delivery Ward at 4:45 to make sure there was a bed available for me. Happily, there was! Here we are before leaving for the hospital:

By 5:20 a.m., we were getting settled into our L&D room, and an hour later, I had started on a bag of Pitocin. The doctor ruptured my membranes shortly after 7 (I was already dilated 3 cm!), and then my contractions really took off. Here I am in my bed, still looking pretty relaxed, around 7:45.

At approximately 10 a.m., when the contractions were about 2 minutes apart, the pain was intense enough for me to request the epidural. It was great to feel this epidural working so rapidly -- a luxury I didn't have when I gave birth to John because I received that epidural so late that it didn't have enough time to fully take effect. Soon after the epidural, I started having this really sharp pain in my lower left abdomen. It didn't feel like a contraction at all, so I was a little concerned. Andrea, our nurse, checked me at that point, and I was 9 cm dilated. Nobody could believe it! (I guess I waited a little longer than I should have for the epidural.) The doctor and L&D staff rushed around to get everything prepared for the delivery.

Once I was fully dilated, I pushed for about 12 minutes. It was much harder pushing with Lila than it was with John because the epidural made it difficult for me to feel myself bearing down. But at least it was a lot less painful! Overall, this birthing experience was about as good as I could possibly have hoped for. We feel very blessed that it went as well as it did and that Ross could be home for it.