Mother and Daughter

Jennifer and Lily are both doing great.

Jennifer was a super trooper during this labor! And now she’s resting comfortably and just absolutely amazed me with how strong and incredible she was during the labor.

And I just made the coolest discovery. Lily has the most crooked pinkies of all our kids. That’s a trait from my mom’s side of the family.

Some people have asked about her name, and I have to thanks Jennifer for going with Lily.

Lily M. Gyldenvand was my great aunt and a tremendous influence on me when I was a kid. Painting, writing, drawing, speaking about faith – that’s what Aunt Lil did her whole life. Google her name and you’ll find references to books she wrote decades ago.

She died more than 15 years ago of Alzheimer’s, and as soon as we learned we’d have a daughter, I wanted to call her Lily. Grace (her middle name) is a tribute of sorts to our Blessed Mother, who the angel Gabriel called “Full of grace”. For all the Hail Mary’s we’ve prayed, it seemed appropriate.

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Lily

Lillian Grace Willits was born at 1:07 PM, she weighs 9 pounds 3 ounces. 21 inches long!

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Adventures in Imperfect Living Catholic Podcast with Rosary Army founders Greg and Jennifer Willits

Lillian Grace is here!

Lily is here! And she has tons of hair and is nuzzling with mom..

pictures soon!

Jennifer’s contractions are MEGA strong now. Lot’s of activity. Midwife thinks we have less than 30 minutes until baby girl arrives. Cancel that —–baby’s coming out!~

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She’s Been Admitted and There’s Progress

photo-240Here’s the update:

When we got here, she was only about 4cm dilated and 80% effaced.

They had us walk the halls for an hour and we prayed a Rosary.

An hour later, they checked her again and she hadn’t progressed very much. The options were: Go home, Get Petocin (no way), or have the membranes stripped on the cervix. Jennifer opted for the membranes being stripped and she immediately went to 6cm dilated, so they admitted her.

We’ve now been moved from triage to an actual labor and delivery room and Jennifer is in the tub.

I only have very slow dial-up, but I will update as much as I can. She’s doing awesome, and it was great news to see how she’s progressed in just a few hours.

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It’s Showtime! We’re heading to the hospital

The contractions have been strong all morning so we’re heading to the hospital RIGHT NOW!

Keep checking the website for future updates.

Prayers would be appreciated!

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Popple Just Keeps Getting Better

Okay, first off, if you’ve never heard any music from Popple, stop right now and go to their website.

Because the baby girl STILL hasn’t shown up, we loaded up the kids and headed up to Lawrenceville, Georgia tonight to go see a live Popple concert.

Just have to say, The CDs are great, but Popple in concert is even better.

At the moment they are performing “Binary” and Sam and Walt are up near the stage mixing it up with all the other youth.

It was a long drive here to St. Lawrence’s, but what a great distraction for all of us as we wait for the baby girl.

And seriously, Dan and Kyle, you guys just keep getting better.

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Home Video: Can Eggplant Parmesan Induce Labor?

Going to Scalini'sAs we posted yesterday, Scalini’s Restaurant is well known for their Eggplant Parmesan, primarily because over 900 babies have been born after pregnant moms ate it!

So last night we loaded up the family into the van and took a trip across town to Scalini’s. Here’s the video of our exploits. Enjoy!

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Eggplant Parmesan at Scalini’s

Well, we caved into curiosity and as I type, Jennifer is finishing her plate of eggplant parmesan at Scalini’s, which took us almost an hour to drive to!

The story is that nearly 900 babies have been born over the past 25 years after their moms ate this dish at Scalini’s. Yesterday on our program we had John Borgino, the founder of Scalini’s was on our program, and we were entice enough to try it out.

So now she’s finished. If the baby arrives in the next 48 hours, the baby’s photo will go on the wall at their restaurant, and she’ll get a baby t-shirt, as well.

Overall, a good meal. Now we just have to wait 48 hours to see what happens.

And NOW we can say we’ve tried EVERYTHING to induce labor.

Here’s the empty plate:

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This Baby Is Not Very Fast

photo-238I’m not even sure what to say anymore.

We are totally confused as to what is going on with this baby.

After going through labor for the first four boys, we thought we had a clue, but this baby girl is definitely not speeding her way along. In fact, every time we think something is happening, we end up being wrong.

And now that we are five days past the due date, she has adequately proven that The Flash she is not.

Last night, after a full day of what seemed like non-stop contractions, we finally gave up and went to bed around 11.  I think at that point that we both knew the baby wouldn’t be coming last night, after all.

Yesterday Jennifer was supposed to have an ultrasound and check-up at the doctor.  We arrived to learn the ultrasound technician wasn’t available, so they sent us to the hospital where we’d be charged $150 for the ultrasound, so we left without any update whatsoever.  So we’re just totally and completely clueless as to if there has been any actual physical change since Jennifer was at the doctor’s on Monday morning.

What’s frustrating is that we feel like we keep letting other people down. I know Jennifer, especially, feels that way even though there’s not a single thing we could do to speed things along.

Trust me, if there is “sure-fire way to induce labor,” we’ve tried it. Yes, that one, too. And that one. We did that one, as well.

So here we are Thursday morning and we’ll be back on the air in less than a couple of hours and I’m quite glad for the distraction. While we talk about getting ready for the baby, it’s great taking calls, talking to fun guests, and laughing our way through 3 hours of not worrying about what happens next.

But I still think it would be über-cool for Jennifer to go into labor – REAL LABOR – during the program.

It would be even cooler for the baby to be born on the air.

That would help make up for all the waiting.

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Is This It?

Jennifer had been having steady contractions pretty much all day.

They haven’t been enormously painful ones, but they’ve been frequent.

She says on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being, “Take me to the hospital,” that she’s been at a 5 for several hours.

So for now, we’re just taking it easy, had a healthy dinner, and we’re going to watch Lost in a few minutes.

After that we’ll head to bed, unless God has some other ideas and we end up heading to the hospital.

It could be something, or it could be nothing. I wish I could tell you more but that’s where we’re at for the moment.

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Leave a Message For The Baby!

We have a new voicemail line for The Catholics Next Door. The number is 1-646-313-2086

In the event Jennifer actually goes into labor during the show, we’re going to see how long we can continue to broadcast, even if it means doing it remotely by phone.

Should be a lot of fun, at least for you as a listener. Not sure if Jennifer will think it’s as much fun, being in labor.

In the event we need to go to break, or even if we want to do something different prior to labor, we’ve set up a voicemail line that you can use to call in and leave your messages for the baby.

You can give the baby advice on how to deal with her new parents, you can give advice to me and and Jennifer, or just say whatever you want (within reason, of course).

So if you’d like to leave a message for us or for the baby that might be played on The Catholics Next Door, call now. Of course, since Jennifer is now three days past her due date, you might want to call that number right now!

Here it is again: 1-646-313-2086.

And in case you didn’t hear them on The Catholics Next Door, here are some messages our baby girl has left for us via “Messages From The Womb”:

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