Ellie's Arrival

I'll try to leave out the most graphic of details for the squeamish but still try to give an accurate account of Ellie's arrival into the world. Here goes:

Ellie had been consistently measuring 2 weeks big for about a month. Then she measured four weeks big. We decided to induce. (I would rather induce labor then need a c-section cause she got stuck) We were scheduled to be at the hospital at 5:30am on April 13th (my 25th birthday). Gracie stayed the night with Auntie Kari so We wouldn't have to worry about getting her up and out the door that early. Steve and I got to the hospital on time and spent the first 25 minutes in the waiting room. Our nurse came and got us settled in room 327, our home for the next 2 and a half days. Dr Wong hadn't left orders for how he wanted to induce so we had to wait for him to come on shift at 7am. It didn't seem to take too long because they had to do my iv and such. Pitocin was started at about 9 and things got rolling.

Dr Wong checked me at about noon (when he had been hoping to break my water) and I was still only dilated to 2cm. He told me he'd be back in the evening and we'd probably be able to do it then. It started to look like we were in it for the long haul. From that point on my blood pressure was pretty high. At one point they had to stop allowing visitors in the room because the nurse was worried I would start having seizures if it didn't go down. Crazy scary. I decided I wanted the epidural before Dr Wong broke my water because my contractions were already getting intense and it would only get worse once my water broke. At about 6ish in the evening the epidural doc came in. She was planning on doing an epidural and a partial spinal block (in case I needed an emergency c-section it would be easier to already have the spinal) but my body wasn't appreciating the spinal. She couldn't get it placed without sending "zingers" up my back so we didn't do it. Oh well.

The 7pm nurse change was interesting. With Gracie all my nurses had been women and so far all my nurses had been women but at 7:00 in walks this 6 foot something 200ish pound man telling me he's my new nurse. Awk-ward! He introduced himself as Dave and said he knows he doesn't look like your typical labor and delivery nurse but that he had delivered over 2,000 (yes, 2,000!) babies. I decided we'd be ok. After all my doctor was a man so what's the big deal if my nurse was too? Steve and I actually really enjoyed having him as our nurse. For those of you that don't know me well you might not know that I am prone to high emotion (shocker) so having 3 men who are all very logical and matter of fact was refreshing, and might I add, very calming.

At about 1:15am on the 14th my epidural wore off and the anesthesiologist had to come back in to try and get it under control.

I must admit, from the very beginning of my pregnancy I had

said I either wanted to wait a little longer this time before getting

the epidural or that my body would move so quickly that there

wouldn't be time for one. I felt like I jumped to it quickly with

Gracie (though at the time I didn't think so) and wanted

to experience more of my labor un-medicated.

Little did I know I would get both.

Honestly, the contractions were painful but not as bad as I had envisioned them to be. My pain level only when up to "8" for whatever that's worth to any of you. Nothing like "the worst pain imaginable" people describe labor to be and for that reason I don't think the epidural had worn completely off. By 1:30 Dave had checked me and I was at 6cm. Are you kidding me!? Around 1:40 something Steve texted my mom letting her know where we were at cm-wise and after that things moved too quickly to keep anyone updated. They were trying everything to get the epidural to work. She was giving me big doses at a time to try and boost it to catch up to my body, they tried switching my positions to let gravity help. Nothing was working.Then they dropped the feet off my bed and sat my head as far up as it could go and it still didn't work. At that point she was thinking maybe the tube in my back had moved slightly so the medicine wasn't going right where it needed to be. so they laid me back down and had me roll on my side. As soon as she got the tape off my back the contractions stopped being painful and all I felt was crazy intense pressure. Dave checked me and said she was ready to come out. "She's right there. Don't move, I'm going to call Dr. Wong" It was 2am.

At that point the anesthesiologist said "Well, I'm gonna get out of here and let you have a baby" With that she was gone. Dr. Wong came in, got dressed in his "delivery suit" as I like to call it, (It included booties that went up to his knees, thank goodness!) they raised my bed, took off the foot of it and by 2:24am I was holding my 9 pound 1 ounce 20 inch long baby. At 2:25 she peed on me.

Because they had worked so hard to get my epidural working again I had to wait a long time for it to wear off after she was born. When I finally was ready to stand up Dave was having me take it really slowly. He kept saying "go slow, let your body adjust, you've been sitting a long time. I don't want you to fall and crack your head on the floor"

Here is where I am REALLY thankful for a male nurse.

After I had Gracie I hopped out of bed like it was no big deal so I was expecting to be able to do the same thing this time. Wrong. Like I said, Dave was having me take it really slowly and honestly I should have listened better instead of pushing myself, expecting the same thing from after Grace.

Mild inappropriate content-only because it involves me on the toilet.

So, I made it too the bathroom and onto the toilet ok, but after that things went downhill fast. Got myself cleaned up and Dave was getting me ready "slowly, when you feel ready, no rush" to go back to bed when I started getting dizzy. I told him I thought I needed to sit there for a minute and that I felt light headed. Luckily the nurse that gives the babies their baths had just gotten there. Dave had her stand by me for a second to make sure I didn't fall (Steve said by then I had turned white as a sheet) and he went to push the call button for another nurse. When the nurse at the desk answered, he asked for ammonia snaps and almost instantly two other nurses were in the bathroom with us. About 30 seconds later a nurse came in with the smelly salts and he made me sniff them...twice. Can I just say they burn!? I felt like once was enough and put up a small protest about having to do it again but ultimately I obeyed, I didn't want to pass out any more than he wanted me to pass out. Steve said the color started in my nose and spread to the rest of my face. After that Dave held one arm, a nurse held the other arm and another nurse all followed me back to the bed.

We went home Friday mid-morning and Steve had the next two weeks off. It was awesome!

I can't believe it's been almost 8 weeks since she was born. I can barely remember what life was like before we had two. A little quieter maybe,, less busy. I got more sleep for sure! Over all she's a really great baby. At night we go between 5 and 7 hours between feedings so I really can't complain too much. I know some people aren't that lucky.

Hopefully I'll be able to update the blog a bit more now that things are starting to settle down. Sorry for such a long post. Thanks for sticking with me through it!