Lillie Belle Sweet 1.7.2012

Yay!!! She is HERE!!!

She is actually 8 days old now. Boy, times have changed...when I had Cameron, I updated my blog from my hospital bed. I guess I have my priorities more in check now. :) However, I wanted to document the experience before my sleep deprived brain forgets everything!

Sam and I did something different this time around. We decided to keep the delivery on the quiet side without any family in the room. I've loved having my parents and Fern in the delivery room in the past, but for our last baby we decided to keep it "chill". It proved to be a very special experience.

Here I am all hooked up to the pitocin. Don't let the smile fool you. Those contractions came FAST and they came HARD!


In the past, I would start to feel gentle contractions and then I'd get my epidural. This time it was like "Oh, I think that was a contraction" and then suddenly I'm gripping the side rails of the bed as crazy contractions were right on top of each other. It was super intense...to put it mildly. This all happened within an hour. I got the magical epidural doctor in the room asap and then I was happy and relaxed again. :)

I settled down into my bed, hoping for a nap because suddenly I was sooooo tired and extremely relaxed and comfortable. My doctor came into the room and said "you are complete, time to have a baby!". I swear, it all happened so fast! Sam responded, "WHAT? Now????" My doctor, who is totally awesome, said "well, we could go to lunch if you'd like, but I figured you'd want to meet your daughter.".

Okay, time to get down to business! The best part of the labor: I only had to push a couple times. During my last push my doctor said "Okay, good!". I thought she meant I was doing a good job, so I continued my push. Then she looked at me and said "no really, stop pushing" and then she held up my baby!! ha ha, I didn't even realize she had been delivered! Best delivery of all 4 kids by a country mile!!!

She cried like a champ, they put her on my chest for some skin-to-skin time, and she totally relaxed and stopped crying. It was then I became a little shocked: this girl has reddish-auburn hair! What the What??? My boys all had jet black hair. Totally bizarre!


Then they weighed and measured her: 6 lbs 13 oz, 20 inches long. She is my only 6 pounder. No wonder she was so easy to deliver! Cameron was 8 lbs 4 oz. What a difference!

All newborns are freaky in a Harry Potter Mandrake way. Oooh, that bulgy eye is awesome!


Opening your mouth is not going to distract me from that awesome bulgy eye. Nice try Lillie!


Okay, you won me over with the pouty lips and spit bubble. Yep, it's official. I love your guts!


Uh-oh...somebody is hungry!


My doctor: Dr Hannele Laine. She is seriously the bees knees and the cat's meow. Totally casual, hangs out in the delivery room taking pictures, and is lots of fun to chat with. Love her!


Grandma and Grandpa Clark. Lillie is named after my dad's mother, Lillie Rottweiler Clark. My mom's maiden name is "Bell", hence Lillie's middle name of "Belle".


First bath. Sam's a pro at this by now! The nurse even gave him an out and said "do you want to bathe her or would you like me to?" and Sam jumped right in and got his hands wet! Before he bathed her I said "Make sure you put a bow in her hair, I'll be so bummed if my only girl does not have a bow in her hair at the hospital!". Sam picked out a good one. Pink polka dots. Precious. :)


Aunt Fern came to meet the Sweet caboose! Great picture of both ladies!


Carson was at a scout merit badge shin dig all day so my parents brought Parker and Cameron to the hospital with them. They loved her instantly, which was great because when Cameron was born, Parker was a stinker! Ha ha, Sam is grubbin' on his Crown Burger that Fern brought him. Watching your wife have a baby is hard work, eh Sam! Really works up the ol' appetite. ha ha!


It LOOKS like Parker is freaked out by Lillie. Actually, he's looking at the IV needle in my hand and freaking out. hee hee.


The boys holding Lillie for the first time. They are seriously so good with her.



Carson came later in the day. He liked her, but it wasn't until we got home that he became enthralled with her. I guess he needed to let his 11-year old emotions figure things out first. I'm sure part of it has to do with the fact that he knows where babies come from now! Yeah, see the pinkish blush on his face! It's tough to grow up.


I'm always fascinated at how quickly babies change in the first few hours of life. I think I had already kissed those cheeks 500 times.


By the next morning I was bored and ready to leave the hospital! Sam took advantage of the bed. Right after this picture, my nurse came in the room. We joked about her getting Sam some buffalo wings. She wittingly said "I've never had a boy patient older than 4 days old, this will be interesting." ha ha!


Going home! My friend Leslie gave Lillie this outfit and she even made head bands to match. So girly! Once she had the hospital onesie off that covered her fingers, she quickly started sucking her thumb.


We left the hospital and went straight to my parents house to pick up three eager big brothers.


From that point on, things have gotten a bit blurry in the memory department. I remember Grandma Sweet visiting, this is her 32nd and final grandchild: 20 boys and 12 girls! Aunt Rose, Zach and Caitlyn came to visit too!


Baby got back, er, I mean, Baby's first bath! She was SCREAMING, I was laughing. Right then Fern, Russ, and Aaron came to visit. I said "if this was my first baby I would be crying too, but I just think this is funny"!


Oh my word, this is my first time seeing this picture. CLASSIC! Look at the chaos that surrounds the first bath. I love it! Cameron was stressing from all the sounds coming from his baby sister.


And now for something completely different: If you know me, you know I'm not the creative type. Shocker. One night a few months ago, my pregnant body wouldn't let me sleep and as I was tossing and turnng, I had a sudden thought: What if I could find my Grandmother's signature of 'Lillie', my mom's signature of 'Belle', and my signature of 'Sweet' and had them printed in vinyl and framed? Then I laughed because I wouldn't have the faintest idea how to make that happen and I drifted to sleep.

Well, I was telling Fern's son Aaron about it and he told me it would be really easy so if I got him the three signatures he would make it happen. YES HE DID! I gave him the signatures, he scanned them into the computer. He enlarged the scan and cleaned up all the edges. Then he emailed the file to his sister Melissa, who had it printed in vinyl. I gave Aaron the frame, and he, Fern, and Russ assembled it and brought it over the same day we got Lillie home from the hospital! PHEW!

I AM IN LOVE with the end result! Here it is, with Lillie and Aaron. :)


And now just some random pictures from this past week. A lot of them were taken by my boys since my hands were full. :)




On a random note...
Sam's brother James loves to chat with Parker and try to convince Parker to play tricks on Carson. Fortunately for us, Parker takes everything Uncle James says to heart and tries out the suggested tricks. Quite often Carson will lay down at night, only to discover random objects stuffed into his pillow case or bed. The other day I heard Parker say "Hey Carson, I have this really cool game where you roll a quarter off your nose and try to drop it into a cup. Would you like to play this game?". Carson shrugged "sure" but first he was shooting apples with dad's pellet gun in the backyard (one of Sam's toys he got for Christmas). As soon as Carson went outside, Parker quickly came to me and said "Okay, here's what I need: a quarter and a pencil. Hurry!!!". He then used the pencil and rubbed it on the quarter's edges. As soon as Carson came back in the house he got him playing this game.

Now, I knew of this game because I have all brothers and I'm pretty sure this is a classic cub scout trick. However, Carson was clueless and from the first black line down his face I lost it! I could NOT stop laughing, while Parker kept a straight face and kept encouraging Carson to try, try, again! By the time Carson figured it out, he was a hot mess! Gotta love Parker!!!


Okay, Lillie is asleep so I gotta go to bed. I'll be dreaming of this sweet little face!