Lilia Laureen Gonzalez

It's been almost a week since the big day and I can't believe how time goes so slow and so fast at the same time! On Wednesday, July 13 at 4:41pm, Lilia Laureen came into the world. This came as a great surprise to us first because I thought I'd be late (my due date was July 18) and also because she's a girl! The ultrasound I had done at 20 weeks told us we were expecting a boy...interesting turn of events! Although it took a little getting used to emotionally, Faiver and I are both thrilled to have this beautiful, wonderful girl in our lives. She is such a joy to have around and I just want to stare at her all day. Faiver can hardly wait to get home from work so he can love on her and play with her. He's such a cute father!

I was in labor for 14 hours. I had decided long before that I would have a natural birth with no medication intervention. I had mentally prepared for this event and practiced my breathing through my Braxton-Hicks contractions. I had back labor, so I felt every contraction in my lower back and only tightening in my abdomen. This was so very painful!

I woke up around 2:00am with bad back pains. They were coming semi-regularly so I thought, "wow...I think I'm having back labor." I tried sleeping some more but it was impossible. At 4:00 I woke Faiver up and called my mom. She told me to call my doctor and then let her know what was going on. I wanted to time the contractions a little before calling the doctor, so Faiver timed them as I breathed through them. They were lasting 1-2 minutes about every 5 minutes. I called the doctor and she told me to go into the hospital to get checked. I didn't really think this was it though! I finished packing my suitcase and we headed for the hospital. I checked into the hospital at 6:00am. When I got there, I was checked and thenurses said I was at 5 centimeters and completely effaced. I thought, "hey, maybe this will gofaster than I thought." They set up the room for the delivery, hooked me up to the monitors and IV and said they'dcheck back soon. Faiver helped me breathe and stay calm as I had painful back contractions. He was so supportive and even cried with me a little! I was given pitocin to "improve"my contractions. That was not fun! At around 3:00, I was still at 5 1/2 centimeters. By use of an internal monitor, they could tell my contractions were strong enough, but for some reason I was stuck at 5 1/2 centimeters. The pain was more than I could take and I asked for an epidural. It seemed like an ETERNITY for the anesthesiologist to get to my room!! I was in the most pain I have ever been in in my life. As he was putting in the epidural, I suddenly got the urge to push. The nurse checked me and I was completely dilated! No wonder it hurt so bad...I dilated 5 centimeters in like 10 minutes!! I felt about 3 more bad contractions before the epidural kicked in. When it did, I was in heaven! It was nice because Icould feel enough pressure to know when I needed to push without having all that pain. I pushed for about an hour before our little miracle was delivered - relatively short time especially for a first pregnancy! Faiver was the first to notice she was a girl...we were all shocked!! However, she was healthy and strong which is what matters the most. She weighed 7lbs 13oz and was 20 inches long. She has some dark-brown hair and looks a lot like her father. She is beautiful! We are glad to be at home and to be parents. A new chapter of life has begun!

What a happy family!

a beautiful girl!

We pinked up her room a bit!