Our Sweet New Addition

 Little Riley Elizabeth was born June 18th at 8:35am.  She weighted 5lbs 6oz and was 16 inches long.  She came out crying and really using her lungs, but after she was weighed, measured and swaddled, she had to go to the NICU.

I got to see her and touch her for a few minutes before they took her away.  She was so tiny and sweet!  I fell in love immediately.

It's very difficult to see your child hooked up to so many tubes and monitors, but I know she is getting excellent care and I am praying for a miracle. I want her to come home quickly.  I want her to do even better than expected.  I am leaving the hospital on Wednesday evening and I want her to come home shortly after that.

This has been a pretty long and difficult pregnancy. I started doing stuff for IVF in July of 2010 so that made the 34 weeks I was pregnant feel more like 51 weeks!  Then I got pretty sick for about 15 weeks my first trimester.  I just remember telling Lance every night towards the end of the 15 weeks how tired I was of feeling terrible all the time.  For the last trimester, I was very uncomfortable and sleeping was pretty hit or miss (that part is typical I know).  And then the early rupturing of my water and the 11 days in the hospital.  And now I am sitting here trying to manage the pain from the c-section and really looking forward to the day when I feel "normal" again!  And most importantly when my family will all be together at home again.

But having said all that, would I do it all again?  For Riley...without question.  Through all the ups and downs since we decided to do IVF again and try for our third baby we have been so blessed!  I know this is just a very temporary thing in our life and soon it will all be just a memory and some great entries in Riley's baby book!