Ellie's Birth Story

Today Ellie is two weeks old! Time is already flying by way too fast.

Before the U goes back to work and life truly becomes chaotic for me, I want to jot down Ellie's birth story so that I don't forget.

For if there is one thing that I do well, I am told it is birthing a baby. The road to labor and delivery might be a bit rocky, I might elect to take the drugs, but I'll be damned if I don't possess the ability to bring a baby into this world in a fast and furious manner (at least once the labor has started).

Unlike her big brother, who came on his own a couple of days before his due date, Miss Ellie was in absolutely no hurry to come out and meet the world. We worried that she would arrive when the U was out of town on business, but she stayed nice and warm and didn't bother to come out. Once my due date was quickly approaching, and my discomfort grew at an alarming rate, we opted to induce the Monday after she was due.

The universe, however, had different plans. The hospital called the evening before we were to go in to let us know that there wasn't enough space for us and, since I was considered elective, I would have to be put on the list for another day. This time around we went with Thursday, January 17, because my actual doctor would be on call and I preferred that she delivered me.

So, once we received the go-ahead from the hospital, we woke up nice and early to arrive there at 5:30 a.m. Although we got there on time, we weren't checked in and sent to our room until almost 6:30 a.m. I immediately started to get jittery as I put on the hospital gown and got into the bed to get things started. In a matter of hours we were going to be a family of four and we would finally get to hold our sweet girl after months of specialist visits and checkups. We met our nurse who got down to business and started asking me a million different questions. And then it turned 7. Shift change.

I swear it took an hour for the nurses to change shifts, so we just sat there and waited, which was no big deal. By the time our new nurse arrived, finished our questions and got my IV going, it was almost 9. My doctor came down, checked in on us and ran through how the day would play out. Since I went into labor naturally with HUT, I had no idea what to expect. Around 10 a.m. they started my pitocin and just gradually increased it as the morning passed. I sat on the exercise ball for most of the time because, once the contractions really started, it just felt better. So much so, that I didn't request the epidural. They finally checked me around noon and decided to break my water when I was 5cm dilated and 75% effaced. For the record, they didn't check me at the beginning because I'd been 3cm and 50% effaced for over a week, so we decided to just get things going and see how I progressed from there.

In my head I began to get a little cocky. Labor was progressing nicely and I was pretty darn comfortable bouncing away on that ball during contractions that I really thought the epidural might not be needed.

Then they broke my water.

Fifteen minutes later it was game over and they were rolling in the cart to give me the drugs. Again, I bow down to you women who do this naturally - it's a pain tolerance that I cannot handle no matter how many breathing techniques and distractions you might try to throw my way.

In contrast to the epidural that I received with HUT, they only pumped me full of enough drugs so that I could still wiggle my feet. I hated feeling like I had no control, so I mentioned that to my nurse right off the bat. I also asked her how I was going to know that it was time to push - I thought that my last epidural had begun to wear off so I could feel the pressure, but I wasn't sure if that was the norm or not. She said that I would definitely feel some sort of pressure.

And she was right. Exactly like my last labor, the pressure came. It came quickly, intensely and was unmistakable. From the moment I felt it, I knew that things were about to get serious and this baby was on her way out.

I would say that it was about 2:10 - 2:15 p.m. when that pressure hit. I grabbed the U's hand to squeeze with all my might as I waited for the nurse to come and check my progress. Once she got there, it was confirmed that I was complete and she asked me to do a practice push. Then she immediately asked me to stop and squeezed my legs back together.

Discomfort at its finest.

My doc arrived in no time, the room was set up and I was quickly informed that I'd need about one push and she would be in our arms.

I thought it was a joke.

And, although it took more than one push, it only took nine minutes and three contractions before little Miss Ellie was placed on my chest and entered our world at 2:39 p.m. Fast and furious.

They had to whisk her away to the table for a moment to suction her properly. Apparently when you decide to make the grand entrance that she did, the fluid in your lungs doesn't get the proper chance to clear. She also had a bit of bruising on her face from the wild ride out. But within minutes she was back in my arms and I fell completely and utterly in love. For the second time as a mom.

We had our couple of hours to bond, call family to catch them up and organize HUT's visit to the hospital to meet his new sister. I was completely exhausted but running on adrenaline. Once we got to the room, I was happy to order some food while the U accompanied Ellie to the nursery to be checked out by our pediatrician where she was deemed the picture of health.

I'll save HUT's first visit for another post. He's still a bit of a work in progress with Ellie, but I have a feeling that by the end of next week he will have all but forgotten what it was like to be the only kid in the house.

For now, since I've yet to unload the pics off of my camera, here are a few shots from my phone of those first two days:

And we can't wait to see how the two compare as she grows older. I definitely see a resemblance in their birth pics, but, as the U says, it's looking like Ellie is going to be his "white" baby compare to HUT. Only time will tell!

{ HUT left, Ellie right }