The Day After Molly Arrived (Part 3)

The door open up and in walked Lydia, the new big sister. And Lydia's first reaction was priceless. She got the biggest smile on her face and ran over to greet her little sis. She immediately wanted to hold her. So, she was hoisted up in mom's hospital bed and there Lydia opened up her arms wide. Then, with mommy's help, little Molly was placed into her arms. And what did Lydia do? Gave her the sweetest kiss and says, "I love my sister." Throughout the morning (and to this day), Lydia continued to ask to hold Molly and help out with her. She becoming a great big sister!

Now, its grandma and grandpa's turn. Can we say "love at first sight?" What a special moment in my parent's long life together!

Could you ask for two better grandma's? They sure do love her!

With her "I'm a BIG sister" pin on, Lydia is all smiles around Molly. Two cuties!

Daddy and Lydia hold Molly for the first time!

The Stock family is growing. Now there's four of us.

 This is one of the best pictures of me and my dad ever of one of the greatest moments ever!

The Day Molly Arrived (Part 2)

It is 7:30 p.m. Dinner for everybody but Mandy had passed. It seems a bit odd that we, who did really nothing had stuffed our bellies, and Mandy, who was doing all the work or "labor", still had an empty one. But with plenty of juice and an IV, she had enough strength to press on. Lydia was with her grandparents ready to go to sleep. She did great all day, but was ready for a good night's rest.

By this time, Mandy's contractions had finally peaked and they were painful. After about an hour or less of some excruciating pain, Mandy decided to receive her epidural. It was a good decision. Truth be told, getting the epidural was by far the most painful part of the labor. The only thing to do after it was to sleep a bit and that is what Mandy did.  

The nap came and went and the epidural and pitocin did their work. The midwife predicted midnight or 2:00 a.m. Thankfully, Molly wasn't on that time schedule. Around 10:15 p.m., the nurse checked Mandy and "Oh, there is a head!" It was truly an amazing sight to see. All of sudden, after a quick phone call, the room was flooded with nurse working like a machine preparing for delivery. Medical carts coming in and out, the midwife suits up, and all the fancy medical equipment is turned on with bright lights. We won't share the details of what happens next except one thing. 

The midwife's personality was much like Clair Huxtable (she even looked a little like her). Well, during the "pushing" time, she was making everybody laugh with her witty humor. Then, about ten minutes into the pushing, something caught Mandy funny, and she laughed and that made Molly come out! 

At 10:43 p.m., Molly Ruth Stock came into this world. She was 7lb. 5oz. and 21 inches. She had a full head of hair and long fingers and toes.  

One more interesting thing was Molly's outfit. Since it was a full house, it took them a little while to relocate us. So, we dressed her up in a pink, little onesie (Lydia picked it out). We moved to our new room (Room 199) and the nursery came and picked her up. The next morning Molly was already famous as the girl in pink. We came to find out that Molly was the first baby ever to come in an outfit (that is what the nurse said - it is a little hard to imagine). That's is pretty cool!

Here is Nana who also encouraged her daughter through the whole labor and delivery. What a great picture!

There will be one more post on the rest of time in the hospital.

The day Molly Arrived (Part 1)

Early Thursday morning is when it all began. As normal, Brian left to work at 6:30ish while Mandy and Lydia were still in bed. Then around 7:00 o'clock Mandy discovered that her water broke. She called the doctor's office and they said, "Come on in." After that, she was able to get a hold of Brian who just made it to work. After a few minutes of "wow! could this really be happening!?!", Brian turned around and ahead home praying for traffic to clear out on I-575. To pass the time away, Mandy washed dishes and called all the necessary people while Lydia watched Elmo on Youtube, a special treat indeed. Daddy arrived home in good time and the Stock family all loaded up the car to the doctor's office. 

At this point, we started to think this was going to be a little different than Lydia's four hour labor as Mandy wasn't having hard contractions. We arrived at the doctor's office and they immediately saw us. After a quick examination, the doc said, "Yup, your in labor. Go to the hospital now!" With stickers in Lydia's hand, we met Grandma outside of the office to take Lydia and we went to Northside Atlanta. 

But like we said, this labor was going to be different in almost every sense. Arrived in record time, we walked the stairs to arrive at the admissions desk to check-in. There we waited. But this time, it was fine because Mandy's labor wasn't really that bad. Lydia and Grandma joined us and Grandpa had just arrived as well. And we waited. Northside is know for being Atlanta's baby factor. We came to find out that it was true they deliver 50 plus baby's a day (that is more than some European countries in a year). And apparently on this day, along with us, we were helping them reach full capacity. After 45 minutes or so, at high noon, they admit us in room F-1.  The room is huge.

Settled down, our minds turned to lunch. Sadly, Mandy couldn't eat so she would have to go through labor on a bowl of shredded wheat for breakfast. She plead with the nurses but they didn't give in but gave her an IV. The grandparents and Lydia go on a hunt for food and they come back with McDonalds. Not their choice or mine, but the cafeteria's line was back up like Chick-fli-a's this past Wednesday. So, they pick Brian up a Big Mac. It was good (once a year).

Lunch came and was gone. Lydia decided (by her parent's love and care) to take a nap. This was a blessing!

So, where are with we with labor. It is 5pm. Mommy and daddy are felt good. The midwife came to check progress. And what does she discover... Mandy hadn't progressed really at all so they (the doctors) and Mandy decided to get a little help from a friend. His name is Pitocin.

Part one is over. Between part one and two Brian, Lydia, and the grandparents all go out and met Nana, who was driving up from Florida, at Moe's. When everybody got back, the Pitocin had kicked in and Lydia is off to grandma and grandpa's house for the night. So, there in hospital room F-1 was mommy ready and waiting, Chicken Noodle (the name at that time) pushing, daddy smiling, and Nana excitied.