My Jilly Girl

Jillian entered our world in July of 2001 about 2 weeks after Fran & my first anniversary. It was an incredibly difficult birth, and I narrowly escaped a C-section thanks to the wonderful Dr. Di Chiara. She was 8lbs 15 ounces, 9 ounces bigger than C.J. was. They were telling me as I was delivering her that she was "bigger than the last one". I immediately concluded that the baby was a boy. But...NO! She was a girl!!! I heard my mouth saying " I really wanted a girl, but I didn't want to say it!". I didn't get to hold her, she was having some slight difficulties and needed to go to Special Care Nursery. The nurse dipped her little face down at mine and I focused really hard on her face wanting to make a memory, and off she went. Fran was an awesome coach. He was overwhelmed with emotion after she was born. Such an incredible experience. The hospital was so packed we had to spend the night in the delivery room. I remember calling my aunt and telling her we hadn't chosen a first name, but that her middle name would be "Alexandria" just as mine is, after my Nana. I glanced up at Fran as I blurted this out realizing I hadn't really talked it over with him...oops! Well, we had never seen eye to eye on any names at that point. Somehow we settled on Jillian, which I loved.Fran tells me now that he named her. I guess I'm a little blurry on the subject. I thought I had suggested it at some point during the pregnancy. Anyway when we brought Jilly home we were living in a very small cottage next to Fran's mom & dad's house. So the little darling was going in our room. I have to say she was pretty much a perfect baby. She slept well, woke up happy, ate well, although she did have a habit of gulping her feedings down, often followed by spitting up. She hardly ever complained and she rarely got sick ( that's even true now, knock on wood...). She is super, super smart. She is artistic and full of imagination and creativity (she gets all of this from Daddy, because I know there are no creative juices flowing on my side...). Jilly is an old soul, wise beyond her years. The days in the cottage when she was small were very happy times for all four of us. C.J. started kindergarten. Fran was coaching football (nothing new here). We'd all go and watch his games together on Sunday. She was a really easy baby. Things were very, very good for us then as a family. I can't recall much stress. We were loving being a growing family.