The story

Wednesday was certainly a full day for the Deetz household. It started off with Carl attending Lily's field trip which, as it turns out, was in Illinois. A bit of a gamble, as Carl went on the bus with the kids with no way to leave if baby decided to make an early appearance that day, but it worked out okay. I was able to teach my class from 12-2, and Carl and I met back at the house just after 2:00 pm. Ingrid came over at 3:30 to watch William and get Lily from the bus stop (big thanks to Ingrid!) while Carl and I made our way to the hospital for a 4:00 induction.

I had tested positive for Strep B at an earlier doctor's appointment so I knew that I would have to get 2 rounds of antibiotics before delivering. After getting settled, we finally received our first round of antibiotics at 5:45 pm. They also started the Pitocin at the same time. Apparently, I had been having contractions already at about 5 minutes apart, but they were so slight that I didn't even notice them. The contractions definitely picked up after that, and I labored until 10:15 before opting to get an epidural. Luckily, I had the first game of the World Series to distract me. My mom and dad came to the hospital around 9:30, and we were able to watch part of the game together. At around 9:45, I received the second round of antibiotics. My doctor came at 10:45 and did an examination which showed that I was 8 cm dilated but she was still high. He broke my water at 11:00 and said that he would stay close by and just let him know when I felt the need to push. About 10 minutes later, I felt the need to push. So, the doctor came back, suited up, and about 4 pushes later, Emilia arrived at 11:22 pm.

As with Lily, it turns out that the ultrasound I had two weeks prior to delivery was way off in regard to baby's weight. They said that Emilia was 8 lbs. 8 oz. two weeks ago, but she was just 8 lbs. 1 oz. at delivery. Everything went really well after delivery. Emilia passed all her tests, and besides when they made her cry right after birth, I did not hear her cry until about 24 hours later, and she has only cried briefly a handful of times since.

We left the hospital at around 2:00 pm on Friday and had a bit of a rough first night trying to figure out Emilia's preferred sleeping style, and William caught a cold and had a restless night's sleep. But last night was fantastic. William was exhausted from a day of partying - a Halloween party in the morning followed by his birthday party in the afternoon - and Emilia did GREAT, waking up at 1:00 am, 4:30 am and then 8:00 am for feedings.

It may be crazy, but I absolutely love having a newborn again. I love the way she falls asleep so peacefully on my chest, I love how she gazes up at me and spontaneously smiles, I love how tiny and cuddly she is....I'm truly enjoying this so much. I just can't get enough of this baby girl. I know how quickly the time passes, and I'm trying to soak up every moment of this incredible time.

Emilia Jane

Emilia Jane arrived at 11:22 pm on October 19th.

She weighed 8 lbs. 1 oz. and was 21 inches long.

And we are in love....again.

Annual train trip

There is a miniature steam engine train not too far from us that makes about a half-hour trip through the woods. The surroundings are so pretty, and the weather yesterday was just beautiful. We try to do this around William's birthday as a treat for him, but it is also the perfect time of year to enjoy the colors of the season.

We met some of our favorite friends there which made the train ride much more fun for Lily. Lily and her friend tried out their silliest Halloween jokes on Carl during the journey.

Such a friendly little guy

If you can't already tell, we really tried to keep busy this weekend so as to not sit around thinking about the baby potentially coming. We really had a great time during our last weekend as a family of four and definitely looking forward to next weekend as a family of five!!

Pumpkin Patch Day

Halloween event #1

The train store near us had a Halloween-themed Family Fun Night so we decided to take the kids and check it out. Lily's Halloween costume for this year has not arrived yet so the kids both wore outfits from their dress-up box. Lily decided that she wanted to be a rock star.

Our little pirate

William was all for the cookie-decorating station, especially the frosting part

Lily and her friend Anna solving some truly complicated puzzles together

"When I'm wrong, I say I'm wrong"

So for the title of this post, I had to steal the line from Baby's dad when he's talking to Johnny in the movie Dirty Dancing. When transitioning William to his big boy bed, I was very concerned about William having a hard time and wanted to make this transition as painless for him (and us) as possible. Carl had the notion from the beginning to keep our normal routine and let him work it out while I, of course, wanted to be with him to help him through this change. The first two nights, Carl conceded to doing things my way which was pretty much disastrous, leading to a very prolonged amount of time going to sleep, waking up in the middle of the night for two hours or more, and little sleep for me or Carl. Yesterday, I decided it was time to try Carl's plan which resulted in maybe 2 minutes of crying while going to sleep and then William sleeping the full time on his own for both nap and through the night. Looks like I caused more distress for William in my attempt to protect him. So yes, Carl, you can mark it on the calendar - I was wrong. I am so happy that William seems to be doing okay with this transition, and I just want to hug and squeeze him and tell him what an incredible little boy he is at not even two years of age. I really am so, so proud of him.

The other arena in which I seem to be very off concerns the arrival of our latest addition. I had HIGH hopes that my doctor would be able to "encourage contractions" (as he put it) today. It turns out that our little baby girl is VERY high right now, and he could not even reach her to do anything to get us closer to delivery. This was so disappointing to me. I really had it in my mind that he would be able to get the ball rolling and that she would be here sometime within the next few days. Doesn't look like that is in the cards for us. We have scheduled an induction for 4 pm on Wednesday, October 19th. As my doctor said, this is just a certain deadline, but she could still come anytime between now and then. I think he just sensed my disappointment and was trying to make me feel better. I'm not holding my breath and fully expect to see him for the induction next week. And while I know this is certainly not horrible news, I am just getting anxious to see her....and to not have to get up four times per night to go to the bathroom. ;)

Baby girl's nursery

I haven't gotten all of the little accessories for the hutch yet, so I'll have to wait on that picture. But, this is the transformed crib area. We are very excited for our little one's arrival and looking forward to bringing her home to her new room.

My beautiful flower girl