All about Delilah Kate!: The Beginning...

Hi! This blog is all about Miss Delilah Kate!
Delilah was born via Cesarean Section on June 20th, 2011 at Santa Monica - UCLA Medical Center at 12:46pm.
She weighed 7 lbs 1 oz, and was 21 inches long (Her length hit the 95% percentile, wow!).

From the beginning...
Ryan & I lived in a beautiful luxury apartment Buckhead, the uptown district of Atlanta, Georgia. We always had fun, we liked to go downtown to our favorite restaurants, walk around the neighborhood, see movies, talk, and just enjoy ourselves and each other.
Here are a few pictures from our adventures...

The view from our Buckhead apartment, you could see all of Atlanta from the roof!

Us at our favorite restaurant, Longhorn! They knew who we were every time we walked in the door

Being silly at Putt-Putt

Google's 2010 Christmas Party in the Egyptian Ballroom at The Fabulous Fox Theatre, check out Ryan's awesome Fez hat!

Checking out the Bodies Exhibit in Atlantic Station, very cool!

A pretty darn cute couple! Us at Taco Mac enjoying the night away.

In October 2010, we found out that we were expecting! We took FOUR pregnancy tests... just to make sure...

Yep. Definitely pregnant!

We were so ecstatic! Ryan & I went to each prenatal appointment so excited to see our little baby! Here is her first picture, in utero, November 15, 2012 ...

And here are her second in utero pictures taken December 6th, 2010...

We were always trying to guess if our new baby was a boy or girl, Ryan said from the beginning he thought it was a girl... I was very mixed, sometimes I thought boy, sometimes I thought girl.

On the day we were going to the Doctor to find out the gender, there was a big snowstorm in Atlanta!

All the roads were closed and we had to reschedule the ultrasound, oh no! It was so hard waiting to find out the sex of the baby, and then we had to wait a little more... maybe Delilah wanted to stay a secret for a bit longer?

We were able to have the ultrasound a week later, on January 19th, 2011... our baby had grown so much!

AND...

IT'S A GIRL!!!!

We were soooo excited! And there was so much to do to prepare for her arrival!

We went through a lot of names, we wanted a name we both liked, and a name that would sound cute for a little girl, nice with a boy's name inside of a heart (Delilah & ___ ), and also look great on a resume. We put a lot of thought into it! We went through list after list of names... here were a couple we considered:

Jennifer
Audrey
Alexis

One night we stumbled upon this website and went through the list, saing each name aloud...when we read "Delilah", Ryan & I both looked at each other and agreed that was it!

Middle names were harder, we had a lot of "maybes":

Jane
Kate
Darko
Midnight

Here are a few pictures of pregnancy, I gained a LOT of weight! But I had a very healthy baby, so that was what mattered most!

In February 2011, Ryan received an amazing job transfer from Google Atlanta to Google LA, we happily accepted it and started planning out the move! We found an apartment in West LA, right by Santa Monica (2.3 miles away from the Pacific Ocean!)... and by April 2011 we were moved and settled in. I began seeing Dr. Frieder for my pregnancy at Santa Monica UCLA, and found the best pediatrician for Delilah, Dr. Canale.

While I was busy going to Doctor appointments, we were also getting the house ready for Delilah's arrival! We filled her closet FULL of pretty clothes and dresses, we set up the crib and bassinet by our bed, stocked the shelves with diapers/wipes/blankets/lotions, installed the car seat and bought a Medela breast pump with plenty of bottles.

I was also thrown TWO baby showers! One by Ryan's family, hosted by Sara & Mary... our friends & family gave us so many gifts, it was so wonderful! And another shower hosted by Ryan's friend Dustin, and Dustin's sister, Deja... I received a travel stroller/car seat, high chair, Boppy, and many many more necessities!

Here are some pictures from the shower with Ryan's family:

A few weeks before Delilah's Due Date, my Doctor noticed that Delilah was head down but had not dropped yet. We kept an eye on it, but there was no change... so we scheduled a Cesarean Section appointment 11 days after her due date... June 20th, 2011.
Up until my scheduled C-section, I tried all the old wives tales to try and induce labor...I walked, stretched, ate eggplant parmigiana, spicy foods, and fresh pineapple, drove over speed bumps, etc etc... but to no avail, Delilah was not ready to make her appearance!

So on June 20th, 2011... we woke up at sunrise and left the house for the last time baby-free for my Cesarean! I had to arrive 2 hours early for pre-op, we went in and I changed into my gown and and got my IV started. Ryan stayed by my side the whole time... we stayed in the recovery room for about an hour listening to Delilah's heartbeat and getting instructions for what's going to happen. I was very nervous, Ryan's Mom came in and prayed over me as Sara and her girls waited outside.
Eventually, the nurse said "it's time to head to the OR"... I think that was the most nervous I've ever been. I had to leave Ryan in the room for a bit while they prepped me up in the Operating Room, it was a very big, cold room, with lots of metal surfaces and a radio playing in the background. I sat down on the operating table and they gave me my epidural in the bottom of my spine... I thought it was pretty neat that Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb" began playing as they inserted the epidural and I began to go numb. After a couple of minutes, I could no longer feel my legs, it was very strange. They laid me down, velcroed my arms down, and put a sheet up in front of my chest so I couldn't see anything.
Dr Frieder came into the room and I felt at ease. Ryan entered the room next and stood by my head. The Doctors asked if I wanted to hear step-by-step details of what was going on, or if I just wanted them to perform without narration... I opted to hear the step-by-step details and I just laid there and listened. I couldn't feel anything they were doing until they began pulling Delilah out. "Lots of pressure", they said... and yes it was! It was the oddest sensation, like someone was trying to pull a slippery basketball from the inside of your body. I just laid there feeling them tug... and then...
I heard a cry! I burst into tears... the purest, most heartfelt cry of my life. I was not expecting to cry, with all the strangers in the room and how frightened and uneasy I had felt about surgery... but as soon as I heard Delilah's cry I experienced the most magical, most beautiful, most absolutely amazing feeling I have ever felt. It was hands-down the greatest moment of my entire life. Delilah's cry was the most beautiful sound I'd ever heard. I was completely overwhelemed with happiness. I carried Delilah for 9 months, I spent countless nights feeling her kicks and talking to her and dreaming about her and what she will be like... but I was not prepared for how much LOVE I felt for her when I heard her cry.
The Doctor held her up for Ryan to see, they took her over to the nurses where she was washed up and measured and swaddled, and then handed to Ryan. Ryan was so proud, I've never seen him so unbelievably happen and proud.
Ryan brought her over to me and laid her by me so I could look at her... and I fell so deeply in love. She was absolutely positively perfect. I just stared at her, her eyelids, her little nose, her lips, her pout, her flawless skin. She opened her eyes up and looked at me, it was the greatest, most amazing moment...I felt connected to her, like she knew who I was...

I kissed her as much as I could and just couldn't believe how perfect and amazing and beautiful and gorgeous she was! I knew this day was coming for a long time, but what I didn't know was how much LOVE I ~~would~~ could feel! I didn't know I was even capable of loving something, or someone, that much!
That was the best day of my life.
And the first day of Delilah's life:)

We stayed in the hospital for 4 nights, and we had lots of visitors! Ryan's Mom, Ryan's Dad, Lisa & Jeff, Sara... here are some pictures taken while we stayed there:

Proud Daddy