Lilly Blair Ford...

Lilly Blair Ford was born on March 5, 2011, at 5:41 am in room 211 of the Wiser Hospital for Women and Infants at UMMC. She weighed 6 lbs, 8 oz and measured 20 inches long. She is the most precious baby, and her daddy and I love her to pieces. Here's the story of how she arrived..

I was SO miserable and ready to deliver that I begged Michael to take me to PF Changs (He HATES PF Changs!) and I ordered the spiciest dish on the menu - Chang's Spicy Chicken with extra chili sauce. We had already been walking around the neighborhood a good bit, but I had decided that we were going to power walk until I couldn't walk any more!

Well, this was my fortune...

(as if I needed more motivation)

Home from PF Changs - 38 weeks pregnant, and all of our ridiculousness worked! I woke up the next morning in labor!

I stayed at home until my contractions were 4-5 minutes apart, and then called Michael and said COME HOME NOW! Although we have no pictures of before we arrived at the hospital, let me just say it was WILD!! It was filled with non-stop phone calls from Michael while I was contracting and trying to get my things together, driving from his office in Clinton to our house in 15 minutes to pick me up (usually a 35 mile drive down the Natchez Trace by the way), crazy fast packing of everyone's suitcases, and driving to the hospital like HE was the one in labor and me telling him multiple times that there was no need for emergency flashers to be on at this point! It's one of my favorite memories of the whole process. I LOVED seeing him SO excited that he was about to be a daddy. It was ONE of (THE greatest moment is a little further down) the greatest moments for me.
We got to the hospital, and they put me on a monitor and checked me. I was having contractions every four minutes and dilated 4cm. My doctor decided that my blood pressure was a little high (her's would have been too if she was in labor and had just ridden with Michael to the hospital!) so they decided it was time to ROLL!! I was THRILLED! We called all of our family and started a twelve hour journey that I will NEVER forget!

Last picture as a family of two! Still happy at this point - epidural was still working...

The fabulous Dr. Bean...I cannot express how wonderful she was!

Lilly's YaYa and BeBe. The greatest friends in world! They camped out in the waiting room with the rest of the family ALL NIGHT LONG!

Everyone waiting on Lilly...
We are missing my dad in the picture. He had gone to take a nap because he was fishing in a tournament at Lake Bruin that day and had been up since the CRACK OF DAWN. I kept telling my step-mom not to call him because I didn't think this was REALLY it - I was in TOTAL denial that I was really in labor I guess! By the way, he had found a sweet spot and caught three fish before he got the call :)

Lilly's Pops and Meme

My precious grandparents drove from Port Gibson, and waited ALL NIGHT! Everyone begged them to go home, but they were wasting their breath! They were going NOWHERE until they saw their great granddaughter!

My crazy sisters came to visit...

10 pm: This was about the time I started to notice that I was feeling A LOT of pain with my contractions...hmm. I will leave out the details of me crying, cursing, etc. and just say it was all downhill from here! That's right, the worst part of labor, and I am feeling every bit! I DID NOT want a natural childbirth, but I got one anyway :)

After twelve hours of labor, being stuck at 4cm FOREVER, and suffering through the majority of the labor process without any drugs, I finally heard the words I had been waiting on for the last nine months..."You're complete! It's time to push!!"
I started pushing at 5:30 am, and our precious Lilly Blair made her entrance at 5:41! I was SO exhausted and SO tired of hurting that I decided it was time to get serious and get this baby out of me! Michael still talks about how fast it all happened. He handled it all like a pro!

There are NO WORDS to describe the next few pictures. It was the most amazing day of my life. At this moment, I had never been so in love with my husband, and never so sure of the fact that I serve a God who is above all else. My God knew what he was doing through this whole process. All of the pain and loss, all of the worrying with this pregnancy, all of the tears shed - God brought us through. That's all we ever asked of Him was to get us through, and boy did He SHOW OFF! He gave us the most beautiful baby I've ever seen...

I will cherish this picture forever. So priceless...

They all couldn't WAIT to get their hands on her!

I can't say thank you enough to my sweet friend, Margaret, who worked 26 hours straight (that's right!) to be sure she was there to take care of Lilly when she was born! I owe her my LIFE!

I will do a post of all her visitors soon, but I have a hungry baby calling me!