Welcome to the World Baby Lily!

41 weeks and 1 day is all it took for our sweet little sister to make her appearance into this world.  Here’s a snapshot of her birth story, as well as some fun photos of life as a family of 5 one week into it! 

I have always felt that my pregnancy with Lily seemed to last a lifetime. Was it because I was taking care of two toddlers while pregnant? Perhaps. And quite possibly because I was 8 days passed her due date and anxious about being induced. But now that she’s here, I would redo that lifetime or extra 8 days over and over again just to relive it all—- as cliche or CRAZY as that sounds! So here we go, the scoop about the birthday of Lillian Katherine Serbinski [Lily, aka little sis!]:

• I was set to be induced on 7/21/16 and just like her Momma, she keeps appointments and is apparently on time for them too!
• The week leading up to Lily’s birthday, I had been having contractions every night. Two nights before the 21st, I could have sworn we would’ve been route to the hospital. But once daytime hit those contractions slowed and stopped, except on the 21st. Imagine that!

• Once we arrived in triage at 7:30am, the nursing staff in triage hooked me up to monitors to watch those contractions as well as track Lily’s heart rate. I was dilated to 3cm.
• Around 9:00am I was off to the labor and delivery unit to get the birthing process going! I was thrilled when my doctor suggested breaking my water [a painless process] vs. starting with a medication to begin the “induction.” Not that I’m opposed to meds [I’m all about the epidural guys], I was induced with Joey and those contractions came on very fast and strong!
• We figured Lily would get here before lunch because when they broke my water with Anthony, he was born 1.5 hours later! She had other plans— of course! I made the progression to 6cm rather quickly [from 9:00am to 11:00am], but stayed there until about 1pm. Once the doc checked me again he let me know that in an hour, if I was still at 6cm, we’d talk Pitocin [a commonly used induction medication].
• Oh and yes, I got that epidural around 11:30am when I was 6cm dilated.
• Doc came back in to my room about 2:10pm, and low and behold it was time to get her out!

And there she was, 7/21/16, 2:28pm, 6 pounds 13 ounces and 20 inches long.

And now, I’ll take a minute to answer some commonly asked questions I’ve gotten since bringing Lily home! Consider it the FAQ page about bringing baby home with other siblings at home too!

What’s the biggest difference between Baby Lily and her brothers at the newborn stage? Well I’m knocking on wood while saying this, but Ted has a nickname for Lily, Chill Lil. Like most newborns, she has her moments of alertness at night [party girl like Momma], but during the day she pretty much eats and sleeps. I’m trying to keep her awake around 5pm until 7 or 8, but if she wants to sleep I let her. I know the night and day thing will work itself out. The good news is when she is awake, she’s not screaming her little head off like Anthony did! Joey had similar behavior to Lily as a newborn, but Anthony… oh Lord. Those were some rough nights!

What’s the biggest transition from having 2 to 3 at home? How are the boys handling the transition? I’ll answer that first question in a month [since it’s only been a week since Lily’s been in our lives]. Right now, I’m lucky enough to have Ted home for the week. He’s had to go into work for meetings which pulls him away for 3 hours at most. During that time, I’ve asked sitters to come over to do things like taking the boys to the park or playing in the water table outside. My parents have also kept the boys overnight once which has been extremely helpful too. I guess I’m just trying to keep things as busy and normal as possible for the bash bros while caring for little sis. I’m also hoping once we get into a good nursing routine I can leave Lily with my Mom or a sitter and I can do 1:1 things with the boys. Side note: the boys go to bed talking about sissy and wake up asking where she is. I think it’s safe to say her two big brothers love her very much!

How are YOU [aka Mom] doing? I’m ok. There’s nothing like the hormone swings or mood swings that accompany the weeks following having a baby. Honestly, I don’t know of any woman that doesn’t go through some kind of “baby blues” after delivering. Mix those with some night sweats and soreness from breastfeeding and you’ve got yourself one emotional cocktail! But alas, I know this too shall pass. And I’m just trying to comfort those emotions with a cuddly baby. And toddlers that still need and want Momma most of the time too. Call me crazy, but feeling needed is one pretty amazing thing, even when you are not showered, have a post baby belly pouch, and can bring on the tears without blinking.

THANK YOU for your support, kind words, texts, emails, visits, etc. during the past week since bringing Lily into this world. I know I’m beyond blessed to have 3 healthy babies and a supportive husband [who handles my mood swings with such grace]. I also know that family is the most important thing right now— and always will be. So if I’m posting regularly or not at all, you know why. Thanks for joining me on this wild ride. And stay tuned for more juice on life with 3 under 3!!!