She’s Here!

Hey there!

It’s been weeks! I’ve been a little busy because… We now have a baby girl in the family!

Lily Ryan Donahoo graced us with her beautiful presence on February 1 at 6:44 a.m.! (Lily is a name we just love, and is also the name of one of my favorite book characters, and Ryan is after my little brother!)

Getting her here was a bit of an adventure, but we are SO thrilled to have this little angel baby to hold in our arms! I’ll spare you most of the details, but long story short, my water broke Sunday night (the 31st) while we were reading to Wilson just before putting him in bed. (I credit this water break to lots of pineapple juice and Thai food!) So my awesome sis-in-law, then my awesome parents, came to spend the night with W while Price and I headed to the hospital!

At my checkup on the previous Thursday, Lily Ryan was head down, face down and I was already at 3.5 cm so I thought this labor process would go really quickly and smoothly since things were progressing so well naturally!

Well… around 4 something in the morning on Feb 1, I was finally dilated to the point where I could push. After pushing for an hour and a half, it became clear that Lily Ryan had flipped to where she was sunny side up… There was no way to safely flip her, so we went in for a c-section…

I’ll admit, I cried at this news. Cried through the whole c-section. This was NOT something I was prepared for! But I knew that (a) God was in control and (b) that we had to get baby girl here safely! So after all my crying (I keep telling myself I was just hormonal! Ha!), when I heard her cry, I cheered up and got to actually hold my little girl in my arms! What a great feeling!

(*Editor’s note: I did not mean to imply that I feel like c-sections are some sort of failure! That is not at all what I meant! I don’t feel like any less of a woman/mother because of how Lily Ryan got here. I’m just so happy and proud that she is here– the method is not important! I cried because I was scared and caught completely off guard and not prepared for the recovery that c-sections involve. NOT because I felt like I’d failed in some way! Just felt like I needed to clarify!)

While I was getting sewn up, Price was telling me all her little details! “She has pretty eyelashes! She weighs 8 pounds 8 ounces! Not near as big as Wilson! Her hair looks like it might be dark!”

All wonderful things! 🙂

We are SO thankful that our little girl is here and that she is healthy! I mentioned to some of you in person that her kidneys looked a little off from about mid pregnancy to the end, but after getting checked out upon arrival (and after changing lots of really wet diapers!) we were given the amazing news that her kidneys are in perfect working condition! Praise God! Thank you all for the prayers on that matter! God truly is in perfect control.

By the way, Wilson is an amazing big brother! He’s learning the meaning of the word “gentle” and LOVES being close to his “bay-bee!” 🙂

Lily Ryan’s newborn pictures are later on today, so I’ll have some more professional ones to share with y’all in the coming weeks!

I hope all of you are having a great week so far! Thanks so much for stopping back by after such a long hiatus! 🙂 I believe I hear a little flower baby gearing up for her next feeding, so…

I’m outta here! XOXO!