Coming home...

So tiny!
The hospital makes every baby a Birthday cake

On our way out

Excited to see her new baby sister at home!
Checking her out
This pose didn't last long...Izzy stood up right away!
Izzy was more interested in rocking in "Yaney's" car seat
Baby Laney brought Izzy a Little People house...something she plays with at her grandparents for hours on end. She loves it...wakes up and wants to play with her "house." Izzy is also curious when I'm nursing...she'll bring her baby over with either a bottle to give her or pull up her shirt to feed her. How quickly they learn!

Our first night at home was mostly sleepless. I have a feeling they'll be like this for a while, until Laney figures out her days and nights. Or until we figure out what soothes her back to sleep. Wish us luck!

Time at the hospital

This time around, recovering at the hospital was a VERY different experience; we had far fewer visitors, we had one VERY fun visitor (Izzy Lou), and we sent Delaney to the nursery both nights for the ENTIRE nights. Got two full nights' sleep. Was incredible. Loved the time there. The entire nursing staff is incredible. And so is the cable...we watched almost every movie available :)

My girlfriend, Molly, took some amazing shots of us at the hospital. There are almost 100...so if you'd like to see all of them, check out our Family Picture Site on the right. She is a great friend and an amazing photographer. We heart Molly. Check these out:

A smooch for Mommy
So excited
Lovey

Izzy wanted to try on Laney's hat

Izzy loving on her new sister

Toes!

Izzy's excited face over meeting her new sis

Some goofing off with daddy

She's the big sister

Meeting

Grandpa Bob & Grandma Laura

My very best friend...Aunt Jaime (or as Izzy says, Gi Gi)

My other best friend, Aunt Kimmy (or as Izzy says, Ki Ki)
Grandma Anna and Grandpa Keel
Ricky, Christopher & Katie visited us
Lori Lou holding Laney Lou
And finally, Molly. Thanks for taking some amazing pics!

Laboring at the hospital...

By 9:00pm I finally called the doctor and she said she'd meet me at the hospital. Phew. Kim stayed at home with a sleeping Izzy until my bestie Jaime came to the rescue to pick girl up for an overnight. Soon Kim joined us at the hospital. I was admitted at 9:30 and was dilated to a 3. They set me up on some Nubane pain drip and let me continue to labor. An hour later I was at 4cm. They started the Pitocin drip. I wasn't dilating very quickly and they wouldn't break my water, as Delaney's head was still very high. There was a risk if they broke my water that the umbilical cord would come through the cervix before the baby...which has a very technical term and is very dangerous. Kim, Mike and I watched about 4 movies over the course of 9:30pm until about 8:30am. Waiting. Around 7am, when the doctors switched their on-call duties, the next doctor on call decided it was time to break my water. I swear, within 30 minutes I went from a 6cm to a 10cm and the baby was crowning. She came SO fast once my water was broken that the nurse had to quickly pull my doctor out of a surgery! I believe I pushed around 5 times and Delaney was born!

This was taken right when they told me we were ready to push. I was a crying mess...just so emotional that it was about to happen so quickly after waiting ALL NIGHT!
Strong set of lungs

So sweet

I couldn't stop crying

Yeah!!! We did it!

Laboring at home

My labor started at home on Tuesday evening. I was awake the entire night timing my contractions. I finally fell asleep from 4-6 am, only to awaken to NO contractions. I went into the doctor's office that morning (with the car packed with our hospital bags) to see if I had dilated any from the day prior, to no avail. I called work and told them I was officially on maternity leave, as I didn't want to go into the office and labor there. Yuck.

So I waited. The contractions came back early afternoon and I immediately called my sister. She was on her way down to Indy, as we knew it was just a matter of time. Once she got into town we had to keep busy to keep my mind off of my painful contractions. So we played dress-up with Izzy, read books on the potty, and once Izzy was down, we walked all the cul-de-sacs in my neighborhood while I labored. It was HOT and muggy. But I needed to get this show on the road. I kept laboring and recording my contractions.

Izzy showing off her reading skills on the potty

Introducing Delaney June McCulloch

Delaney June McCulloch

August 27th, 2009

8:39 a.m.

6 lbs. 11 oz.

20 1/2 inches

I am the luckiest...

I've been having regular contractions now for 7 hours (it's 2am now and they started around 7 pm). I laid in bed for over an hour listening to my husband breathe in his sleep, all the while recording every contraction by the light of my cell phone. They are pretty consistently 5 minutes apart; however, they are not lasting more than 45 seconds. The general rule of thumb is to call the doctor once the contractions are 5 min. apart, lasting 1 minute, for an entire hour. So I wait. And labor. Alone in the dark.

I remember when I was going through this exact same labor with Izzy; I was up all night on the computer reading other peoples' blogs and then blogging myself. Hard to believe that was only 2 years ago (give or take 5 weeks). Seems like Izzy has been part of our lives for a lot longer than that. My, how quickly we forget the newborn stage and all the stages in between. I will soon be reminded, as my world will once again be changed for the best.

Anyone who knows me well knows that Mike and I were 100% sold on the fact that we were only going to have 1 child, Izzy. Doctors told us it was nearly impossible for us to conceive on our own and we were NOT going down the fertility road again. We were perfectly happy with our little Izzy girl being our only. We had come to terms with it and in fact, were quite overjoyed to simply have the most perfect little girl to call our own.

We just went on a whim to see if we could conceive on our own...and wouldn't you know it, it worked on our first attempt (using Chlomid prescribed by my OBGYN, not by the fertility specialist)!

I cried in disbelief at the pregnancy test.

I cried in anger at the fertility doctor that said this medicine would never work for someone with my condition (PCOS).

I cried in joy that Izzy was going to have a sibling.

I cried in elation that my body worked.

I cried because I never thought I'd be able to experience the miracle of childbirth again.

And here I am. Again. Laboring another daughter. A sister to Izzy. And words cannot express my emotions. I am the luckiest. Which brings me to one of my most favorite songs by Ben Folds, titled "The Luckiest":

I don't get many things right the first time

In fact, I am told that a lot

Now I know all the wrong turns,

the stumbles and falls

Brought me here

And where was I before the day

That I first saw your lovely face?

Now I see it everyday

And I know

That I am

I am

I am

The luckiest

**I'll keep you all posted on my labor & delivery!!**

Final Countdown...

Today we had Izzy's pre-school orientation; her last day at Goddard is next Monday and then she starts pre-school on Tuesday. No rest for the weary. Mike dressed her up to meet her new teachers...and she was just so stinkin' cute that I had to snap a few photos.

I was searching through photos of my monthly belly pics when I was pregnant with Izzy and found that I had not taken a picture of my belly at 40 weeks. Wanted to be sure to document how large my body gets right before birth. So here you have it...39 weeks and 3 days pregnant:

Some have said I'm smuggling a watermelon or a basketball. Nope. Just a little girl!!!

Doctor appt. today went well; I'm 2 cm dilated and 60% effaced. I was only 2 cm dilated when I was admitted to the hospital with Izzy...so I think I could go anytime now!!!

1 week to go...

This was my last 3 day weekend of the summer at work and we spent it doing a wide variety of fun activities. Friday Izzy and I met a girlfriend and her twins at the library for reading hour. Came home and helped daddy in the garden (the tomatoes made for some YUMMY salsa!). Friday night we brought dinner to Katie & Rick and visited with their 6 week old, Christopher. Izzy was over the moon to see a little baby and was face-to-face with him the entire time. She was enamored and kept pointing to his eyes, ears, mouth, nose. Adorable.

Saturday we woke to chilly temps (in the low 60s) and rain, so that meant no pool. Izzy and I ventured downtown to the Children's Museum (thanks, Mom for the annual pass, we love it!) to meet Jaime and Luke. The new entrance is open at the museum and Radio Disney was there to welcome us. In fact, the radio gals were dancing to some High School Musical tunes and Izzy was right there with them dancing. She loved it and it was hard to tear her away from the dancing.


Climbing the wall (she made it to the top and then slid down)

Izzy loved the carousel

Iz, Jaime and Luke

We finally put up the rest of the decals...I love how the Isabelle turned out and then Mike decided to put the little birdie near the door instead of with the rest of the decals. Turned out pretty cute!

And today also brought cooler temps...so we stuck close to home. Went on wagon rides, played in the driveway with chalk and even played basketball with daddy.

It's hard to believe I'm due in 7 days. Had a scare on Thursday at work...lost part of my vision for a while and immediately went into the doctor's office. My blood pressure was normal and the baby was doing well, so they let me go (they feared it might be preeclampsia). And yesterday I started getting pretty regular contractions (10 min. apart). They lasted all afternoon and then stopped late in the evening. False labor. All weekend Mike and I have been nesting, trying to keep distracted. Mike did some painting, caulking and garage cleaning while I cleaned all the windows and sills and have my bags packed, ready to go. I'm glad to be going back to work tomorrow to keep my mind off of my impending labor.

In other news, our Izzy girl pooped on the potty tonight. CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?!!? She was pretty shocked, herself! I know this won't happen overnight, but I'm just so impressed by how quickly she is growing up and all that she is accomplishing on a daily basis. Also, this is her last week at Goddard School and her preschool starts next week. Lots of transition happening in her world. She's so darn resilient that I don't think we'll have much of an issue. Again, I think I have more anxiety over changes in her life than she does!

Here's to hoping the next post is a birth announcement!!!