Sicilya CarmellaMarie
born May 14, 2011
at 12:30pm
7lb 7oz
20.5 inches long
A week prior to your birthday, we spent the night in the hospital for observation because i was having fairly regular contractions and they thought you would be born that night...but you and God had other plans All it took was a bendryl (to help me breathe) and a two hour nap for all the labor activity to end and we were sent home at 5am on Saturday, May 7th.
The coming week was like any other, i timed contractions many nights, but none of them turned into anything worth calling about. i even went to work one day that week! for several months i had joked around that Friday, May 13th would be your birthday just because that was how the pregnancy had been going. your brothers had a field trip to the zoo that day and i just figured that would be enough to put me into labor...but your brothers and i were all sick that morning, so we decided to stay home and you decided to stay put! but only until the wee hours of the next morning!
My contractions started at 3:30am and i believe they were brought on by my horrible cough. in order to not wake your dad, i grabbed my phone, my pen and paper and my pillow and i headed down to lay on the couch. sleep was no longer an option, i was coughing to much and my nose was to stuffy, so i sat there and tried to relax and wrote down the time for every contraction i was having. they started off about 6-7 minutes apart but by 5am they were nearing five minutes apart. i was expected to be at work at 6:30am, so i figured i would jump in the shower. if it was real labor i expected the contractions would only continue, if it was false labor they would likely stop. well i had five contractions in the 15 minutes i was in the shower, so when i got out, i decided it was time to call into work!
My next call was the doctors office. i had a feeling they were going to send me in to get checked and hooked up to the monitors, but i was really dreading another round of false labor. i had just been to the doctor 4 days earlier and was still 2cm and our doctor didn't expect you to be joining us anytime soon! well, little did he know, you had a plan of your own! our doctor called back a few minutes later and said i should head in, so i called Nonna and poppa and woke up your dad.
Nonna and Poppa showed up a little after 7am. Vincenzo was the only one of your brothers awake yet. he had joined in the morning activity around 5:55am, said he knew that i would be up sitting on the couch! (brotherly intuition maybe!) He played 10,000 questions with me, asking anything he could think of about anything he knew, while i dressed, dried my hair and threw the last few things into my bag.
By 7:30, we were heading up to the 4th floor, where i was ironically situated in the very same room that your brother Tuscan had been born in only 5 years earlier! was it a sign...i would say so, especially considering that both our doctor and our midwife were on call, and the anesthesiologist that did my epidural with Tuscan was the same one working that day! everything was lining up, indicating that today was the day!
Around 8am, the hospital midwife checked me and gave me the disappointing news that i was still only 2cm and that my contractions, although coming fairly close together, just didnt have a long enough duration for them to consider me in real labor and she suggested i just go home! well i opted to stay. there was no way i was going home pregnant again!! everything was just to right about the day and the idea of going home, with the way i was feeling just felt all wrong! so they let me stay on the monitors for a bit.
No sooner did i mention to Nonna that i wished our doctor would pop in, our midwife showed up instead!! it was such a pleasant and welcomed surprise!! she graciously checked me and said in her opinion i was at 3cm and my water felt ready to break! she and our doctor had to go do a c-section and she would be back to check on me in an hour. if i had progressed to 4cm she would gladly break my water and suggested i get out of bed and go for a walk and even sit on the birthing ball for a bit!
well that was exactly what we needed...and exactly why i knew i needed kelly to come check on me! By the time they were done with the section we had progressed to 5cm and it was time to break my water. that was at 10:30am. by 11:15 my contractions were coming on close together and much stronger. it was time for my epidural! we waited for what felt like an eterinity for the anestesiologist to show up, but once the numbness started to set in, i was a very happy and relaxed woman! i was looking forward to taking a nap now that i was nice and warm! but, you once again had other plans. kelly checked me again after getting me situated with my epidural and she said we had since progressed to 8cm! i was shocked - even more shocked when she said you would be out within the next 20 minutes!
Suddenly the room got brighter as they turned on all the lights and got the room prepped for delivery! and within minutes i was feeling ready to push. Nonna was there, helping deliver you and daddy was there supporting my left leg and my every push! it didnt take much and before i knew it you were out...presenting us all with the long awaited surprise of who had been growing inside of me for the last 37 weeks!
at 12:30pm we were presented with the most amazing surprise, the biggest blessing and something we had hardly expected...my baby girl was placed on my belly for me to kiss for the very first time! everything about you was absolutely perfect! daddy, nonna and i had tears streaming down our cheeks - we were shocked that you were actually a little girl...an answer to prayers and dreams that have been present in our family for many many years! the very thought of you had seemed so impossible for so long, with the history of boys in our family and then there you were, in my arms. my life changed a bit in that moment, in ways i just might never be able to explain!
i love you Sicilya more than words will ever begin to describe. being chosen to be your mother is an honor that i am so grateful to have bestowed upon me and my promise to you is to always try my hardest to be my best. as you are growing up, i will not long to be your friend, but to be something more than that. someone you will forever be able to count on, someone you can trust...someone you can talk to about anything without being judged and without fear. someone who will love you unconditionally and support you in all the ways i can. you have been born into an amazing and unique family, a family that thanks God on a daily basis for all the ways we have been blessed. a family who turns to God when the going gets tough. A family who trusts in the Lord when life seems to be more than we can handle. and i pray for you my baby girl, that we will have what it takes to instill all those values and all that trust into your own heart. Jesus is the light and the way and if there was ever a moment of doubt for me, that has all been eliminated now that i have looked into your eyes! Everything about you, since the very beginning, has all been God's plan and i have never felt so sure of His presence in our life as i do now. You are an answer, a missing link, a granddaughter, a sister, a cousin and a niece...and you are our daughter, hand chosen for us directly by God and for that i am eternally grateful!
welcome to our world little lady!
millions,
~ mommy
