A New Baby

We welcomed Lydia Ann Burningham into our family on February 17, 2016 at 6:07am. She only weighed 5 lbs 1 oz and was 18 1/2 inches long.

We were a little surprised, but mostly ready for her early arrival. At my 37 week check up, the doctor told me I was already dilated to a 3. He said he would be surprised if I made it another week to my next checkup. Because of some other pre-labor symptoms I'd been having, that appointment got Jason and me all worried that Lydia would come that night. We got our hospital bags all packed and we spent a restless night waiting for me to go into labor.

After several more days with no progress, we figured the baby probably wouldn't come until my next checkup on Friday. So we were both surprised on Tuesday night when less than 30 minutes after we went to sleep, I woke up to my water breaking. That was a new experience for me! But it was an answer to prayer because I was hoping my water would just break for this labor so I would know when I could go to the hospital and they wouldn't turn me away because I hadn't dilated enough like last time.

We called our neighbor Karen from down the street who is the Primary President at church. She had volunteered to come sleep at our house if the baby came during the night so we wouldn't have to disturb Ethan. She came over shortly after midnight and we left for the hospital. My contractions were just starting at this point and weren't painful or regular.

Checking into the hospital and getting all the IVs etc. took more than an hour. I got an epidural around 3:30am when the contractions really started to be painful, coming about every 5 minutes. They finally left us alone around 5:00am to "rest." Within the next hour I dilated from a 6 to a 10. So when the nurses came to check me an hour later I was completely dilated and ready to start pushing. The doctor came a few minutes later. He had me do one "practice push" as he called it, and Lydia started coming. He had to hurry and finish putting on his gloves and gown etc. and then Lydia literally just popped out. We were all surprised by how quickly and easily Lydia came in comparison to Ethan's delivery. I think the doctor was only in our room for about 10 minutes and was finished with all the birth and afterbirth. Lydia was very small, but she is healthy and scored a 9 on the Apgar test. Because her weight was less than the first percentile for babies her age, she was monitored very closely for the next several hours. Fortunately, she was able to eat enough and slept well and we were able to keep her out of the NICU.

Ethan visited us at the hospital on Thursday. He stayed with another friend, Emily, from my church and her family for the two days we were in the hospital. It was so nice of her to take care of him, and he had a great time. Ethan loved visiting us at the hospital and meeting Lydia for the first time. He is such a great big brother!

Friday morning we checked out of the hospital to go home. The nurses were so great and we had a huge suite of a room at the hospital. It was a good experience overall and I was able to recover quickly from the delivery.

Leaving the hospital

Lydia barely fit into the smallest settings of the carseat

Going home from the hospital was a dose of reality again in balancing the demands of two children, but we're loving it! Lydia is such a blessing to our family. We're grateful to have her in our family forever!

Lydia lying on the quilt my mom made for her. You can see her head is only slightly larger than an orange.

1 week old

2 weeks old