Troy Candice and Lyla Palmer: September 2009

I truly feel so so blessed to have little Lyla in my life, she is the sweetest baby ever and of course i think the cutest too. Even though i miss my sleep she is so worth it. I really just feel overwhelmed with gratitude for her and also for Troy who has been so helpful and will do anything for me and for Lyla, he really has been the best husband and dad! He still will get up with me during the night to help me or sometimes when im up with her and shes crying hard and he hears it he'll just come out and ask me if i need any help, even though he has to get up early for school the next morning. I do have to mention for instance last night a very small part of the pump broke and i woke him up to ask him what i should do (i have to pump every 2 hours) anyway being the best guy ever he was on the ground searching for that part which was seriously the size of a sliver and he found it and spent forever trying to glue it back together and he ended up going to bed at 2am. Ok i know im gushing over troy, so back to Lyla, im going to write some things about her so that i'll always remember.

She LOVES to get her diaper changed

she loves her carseat and riding in the car

she has very strong neck muscles ever since she was like a week old, when shes laying on your chest and she gets sick of laying her head on one side she will turn it over to the other side

she hardly cries, she really only cries when its necessary (most of the time)

she has a cute cry

ever since she was born when her eyes are open she opens them so big, she is so very alert

she smiles alot but on aug. 20th was when it was an actual happy smile and she was looking right at me, so cute!

she is very long

she doesnt like nursing :( she was in the beginning but once i had to give her a bottle she likes that better cause it comes out faster so i've been pumping 2-3 hours day and night just so she'll have the good milk

she doesnt like to be swaddled when she sleeps she likes to be sprawled out with her arms up over her head

she sleeps her life away

during the night i get between 2-4 hour stretch

she has never cried for more than a few min, she is easily comforted

she likes her binky

she likes getting a bath but not so much when i wash her hair

she loves sleeping on her dads chest

she scares us when she poops it seriously shoots out

Lyla is just a joy in our lives and is the cutest thing ever! we just love her and im so sad that she is growing so fast! I am just so lucky she was sent to us. And i just love that troy loves her so much and he wasnt sure if he would like the newborn stage as much but i just loves her and wants to hold her all the time and doesnt mind changing her diaper, she has him wrapped around her finger thats for sure. We just love her!

Ok so here it goes, on aug. 19th (wed) I was scheduled to be induced at 3pm. The day before, Tuesday, a nurse called and said there was an opening on Wednesday to do an induction. Of course I said yes to it but man I was soo scared because this came out of no where. They decided to do an induction because of my high blood pressure and they were thinking the baby was going to be 8.5 pounds and also troy was starting school monday. So Wednesday we were all packed up and went to the hospital and arrived on time. We went to check in and the lady said "oh we don't have any rooms for you, today has been so busy with people going into labor, we will call you when there is a room". She also said they were supposed to have called us that morning to infom us not to come in but no one did. I was sooooo mad, and what a dissapointment, i was mentally prepared and everything. So we drove home and I decided to take a nap. But before I did I wanted Troy to call and just see if maybe they knew of an estimated time of when they would call us to come back in. When Troy called the lady said "oh we acutally were going to call you to come back, we have a room for you." How annoying!! We seriously were home for 5 min and then we had to go back. This time driving to the hospital I was way more nervous and scared. So we got there but we had to wait again! They had called other people to come back in for inductions as well and even though we were the first ones there they called those other people to come back and check in before us! So again they told us that they didn't have any rooms for us! Oh my gosh I was sooooo bugged! Finally after waiting over an hour we got to check in but as we were checking in a girl came in who was in labor so they gave her our room. Are you kidding me!? So then we had to wait some more. Finally they took me back and they had to put me into a triage room, which is like a whole in the wall, and I stayed there for 4 hours. They started me up on my IV, which by the way freakin hurt! and then they had to give me some medicine to soften my cervix. They started me on this medicine at 7pm and I had to have it in me for 12 hours. Me and troy were so bored in that room we played hangman on a dry erase board, which was very entertaining, we were laughing so hard and having our own fun. At about 11pm they gave me some Ambien to help me sleep through the night. Well that didn't work out so well because I still couldn't fall asleep because of all the annoying sounds of the machines and getting my blood pressure taken every 30min! So then I started to hallucinate because of the Ambien and when I would look at Troy his face would be all distorted and I would just stare at him and I got all freaked out. He had to make me close my eyes to go to sleep, it was pretty funny.

At 7am the next morning they took out the medicine to soften my cervix and checked me. I was dialated to a 1 and 70% efaced. At 8am they started me on pitocin. At 9:30 my dr. came in to check me and I wasn't progressing and he really wanted me to have this baby that day so he decided to break my water. I totally freaked out because there was no warning. He did it and it hurt! So about an hour after that I started to feel some cramping and then I began to really feel the contractions. They hurt pretty bad and I had to really breathe through them. My nurse, who was awesome, said that I could have my epidural at any time. So I asked her to check my progression and I was only at a 2! I didn't want the pain to get worse but yet I wasn't sure if it was totally lame to get the epidural so early. She said it doesn't matter and I should just do it because it wouldn't slow me down or anything. So I thought why not? So basically I was in labor for an hour :) But the bad part.... getting my epidural was the worst most painful part of my life. Getting the first shot to numb my back was awful but then when she was doing the big needle she kept hitting my right nerve in my back which was soooo painful and she ended up poking me like 5 times! It seriously was so painful and traumatizing for me, I just cried and cried. But I do have to say that after it was done it was sooo worth it. Troy had boughten me a ring for "pushing out the baby" and he gave it to me after my epidural because he wanted to cheer me up. I'll have to post a pic of the ring, I just love it, it's beautiful.

Anyway I was able to rest and have the lights out to try and sleep. The nurse came in at about 2:30pm to check me and i was at a tight 4. So I dosed off again (Troy was so bored, I felt so bad for him). Then at almost 5pm I started to feel like I needed to poop (which means the baby's head was right there). For some reason I didnt tell the nurse right away because i had felt it for a while. Anyway she came in to check me and she said "wow you are ready to push right now!!" Crazy!! I got nervous and I didnt know what to expect! They hurried and got everthing ready and Troy was holding one leg and my mom the other. I pushed about 5 times and got her out in 15 min.!! It was sooooo fast, they said that once her head came out her body just flew out! Everyone was just amazed at how fast she came. I did tear a little though, but guess what, I didnt poop! haha that was my fear. Im sure you all wanted to know that too. Troy, throughout the whole process, was just soooo amazing, he helped me out so much and he was such a good coach through it all too, giving me words of encouragement. My Mom was also such a great support for me too! Lyla weighed 7 pounds 14 oz and was 20.5 in. She came out with such a sweet cry. It was so crazy, I honestly didnt know how to feel after everything, I think I was just so exhausted.
So after everything I've been healing really well, and i just love her so much. She really is such a good baby, she only cries if she needs something, she never just cries just because. She sleeps pretty well and when she's awake she just stares all around. She really is a good baby and we just love her to pieces! I have to admit though it still has been so very tough especially for the first 5 days. I literally didnt sleep because I was so worried about her. I would just stare at her all night until about 5 or 6 am until my body couldnt handle it anymore. It was pretty bad. Thankfully my mom stayed with us and helped out soooooooo much. She cooked us a great meal every night, she did laundry, cleaned the house and would watch the baby when I needed to take a nap. She was just so wonderful and I was sooooo sad to see her leave. I still really miss her and her help. Things by myslef have been hard. I definitly have had the baby blues, my hormones have been crazy and I would cry almost every night (its getting better) And troy has been here for me throughout it all. He truly has been so so helpful. He helps whenever I ask him and he even gets up at night with me and he feeds her a bottle while I pump, just so I'm not up for so long. Troy is such a great dad and he just loves to hold her and take care of her. He even doesnt mind changing her nasty poops. I really couldnt be more thankful for him and all he has done for me at this time!