Lillian Jean Atkinson

I began watching the full-moon on Saturday night. Saw the full moon was on Tuesday, the 24th, my best friends birthday, and hoped for the best. On Monday morning I woke up early with what I thought were contractions. They lasted all day but weren't overly regular or extremely painful. I went ahead and asked Kevin to stay home from work on Monday. He rides the train to work and not having done this before, I wasn't sure what was going to happen. On Tuesday, I woke up with a lot stronger contractions. They were A LOT different than the ones on Monday and I was sure Tuesday was going to be the day. However, the contractions never got closer than 10 minutes apart.

We headed to my 39 week appointment at 4:00 on Tuesday and went took all of our bags in case we were admitted. Unfortunately, even though I was 80% effaced, I was only 0.5 cm dilated. I was sorely disappointed and couldn't believe these contractions I had been having were doing nothing. At this point I was sure I was going to have contractions for the rest of the week and Baby might come on Saturday. The mid-wife sent us home and suggested we come back when the contractions were 3 minutes apart and I was "really huffing and puffing." I felt like she was telling me that what I had been experiencing weren't real contractions.

I continued to have regular contractions throughout the night. This was my second night with contractions and I didn't get much sleep at all. It was, however, nice to be in my own bed. By 5:00 a.m. the contractions had gotten a lot stronger and were now 5 minutes apart. By 7:00 am we were still at 4 or 5 minutes, but they were lasting 2 minutes in length. At this point, I was sure I was only at maybe 4 centimeters and if these contractions were this painful, I was going to have to have an epidural because I wouldn't be able to handle the pain. At 8:30 I told Kevin to call the hospital to let them know we were coming. Unfortunately, the contractions were coming so hard and so fast, it took us a half an hour to get out the door. I was laboring really hard at this point and although my Mom knew I was really far along, I truly expected to be only half way there. Kevin and Mom were great at home coaches forcing me to relax and breathe. When I finally got down stairs my water broke. We begin to scramble.

Poor Kevin, I know I made him nervous. Mom is in the back seat trying to make me breathe. Kevin is running red lights as we have to get to Kaiser Riverside which is about 20 minutes away. Kevin avoids the security line to get into the hospital; I rolled down the window to let the guard know I was not about to wait for him to waive us in. Kevin runs in to get a wheel chair and he and I head in while Mom parks the van. I begin panting to prevent any pushing. We ran into the Labor and Delivery Director on our way who helped us get into a room right away.

When we got to the labor room, the mid-wife (Nancy) asked me if I would be able to use the bathroom before I got on the table. I said no. They quickly got me into a gown and I was on the table by 9:30 am. She took one look and said, ok, you are complete! The got my IV in, washed me, and said I could push whenever I felt like it. Nancy was very impressed with all of Baby's hair and kept playing with it. I had maybe 8 contractions of pushing and Baby was out. At this point I still didn't know if I had delivered a boy or a girl. Kevin was supposed to make the announcement, but with all that was going on, he couldn't see. I finally asked him, "What did we have?" He was so taken with everything he was still trying to process. But he finally made the announcement, "It's a girl."

From there I got to hold her for a few moments before the took her to be weighed, measured, and overall checked.

She looks like an Atkinson (technically a Rookus); nose, eyes and coloring. However, my mother will argue that the cheeks and square face look just like mine did at birth. We'll see how she changes.

We were to our recovery room by noon. Kevin was in charge of one end, and I the other; I fed, he changed diapers. Poor guy though, those first few diapers are pretty disgusting.

We had a double room but never got a roommate so Kevin got his own bed. Baby did really well the first night. The second night was rough at home but third night went really well.

We are enjoying our time as our little family, and my mom is a wonderful help.

Lillian Jean Atkinson was born Wednesday, August 25, 2010 at 10:19 a.m.

8 pounds, 5 ounces, 21 inches long

Lillian was Kevin's paternal grandmother's name, and Jean is now a fourth generation middle name on my maternal side.

Here are a few pictures - the rest are on facebook!